The cryptocurrency token of Worldcoin, a project co-founded by Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, has experienced a remarkable surge of over 140% in the past week, as the number of daily users surpassed one million. In a post on February 18, Worldcoin announced that its crypto wallet application, known as “World App,” had exceeded one million users, a significant increase from the 100,000 daily active users recorded in November 2023.
Worldcoin, created by Altman and Alex Blania in July 2023, is a digital identity verification project that emphasizes privacy and rewards users with its native cryptocurrency for scanning their irises. The project’s objective is to introduce a universal basic income by providing a small amount of its native token, WLD, to every individual on the planet in exchange for verifying their identity.
However, Worldcoin’s ambition to implement universal basic income and its biometric identity system has sparked controversy, primarily due to concerns about privacy related to its eye-scanning devices called “Orbs.” On January 31, Hong Kong’s Office of the Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data (PCPD) initiated an investigation into Worldcoin’s local operations due to “serious risks to personal data privacy.” The PCPD executed warrants and conducted searches at six premises controlled by Worldcoin in Hong Kong as part of its investigation. The project has also faced regulatory scrutiny in other jurisdictions, resulting in the suspension of its services in Kenya and the temporary halt of iris scans in India.
Despite these regulatory concerns, the native WLD token has seen a remarkable increase of over 141% in the past week, benefiting from the broader rally in the cryptocurrency market.
In addition to Worldcoin’s success, OpenAI has made significant updates. On February 16, OpenAI introduced Sora, a text-to-video generator that enables users to generate video clips and scenes based on text prompts. Prior to that, on February 9, Altman announced his intention to raise an astonishing $7 trillion to support the firm’s semiconductor chip development. While this massive funding goal raised eyebrows in the tech industry, Altman appeared unfazed.
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