The digital ID card World ID from OpenAI boss Sam Altman’s controversial Worldcoin project will help various online platforms distinguish human users from software robots in the future. An extensive protocol will be integrated into the registration processes for, among others, the gaming platform Minecraft and the social networks Reddit and Telegram.
This was announced on Wednesday in San Francisco by the company Tools for Humanity (TFH), which developed and operates the World app.
The World ID is also embedded in the online commerce companies Shopify from Canada and Mercado Libre, a retail market leader from Argentina. Until now, the World ID was mainly used on the gaming platform Discord to prove that an account holder is actually a human. In the future it will also be possible to keep track of, for example, how many accounts an owner has already created on a platform.
Five million users
According to TFH, approximately five million people worldwide currently have a World ID. More than half of the users also had their eyeballs scanned to be able to fully use the World ID. Although TFH does not collect other personal data, such as name, date of birth, address or bank details, the concept was met with great distrust among politicians and authorities. The Bavarian State Data Protection Supervisory Office and banking supervisor Bafin have announced investigations. Results are not yet available.
The new version 2.0 of World ID now offers four tiered levels of authentication to give developers the choice of how strict the requirements should be to identify themselves as a human. The World ID Pro variant also requires a facial scan, similar to the unlock methods on modern smartphones. The strictest variant, World ID Max, still requires an iris scan.
Iris scans in Germany
In Germany, Worldcoin currently offers the option to have your World IB validated with an iris scan at five locations: in Berlin, Cologne, Nuremberg and Stuttgart. With the new version of the World app it is also possible to have your World ID account deleted, promised TFH manager Tiago Sada. “As with everything crypto, this was very difficult because things in crypto are often invested forever and ever.” But a technical solution was found for this.
TFH GmbH, founded by Sam Altman and German computer scientist Alex Blania, has offices in Erlangen, San Francisco and Berlin. Sada told the German news agency that Altman was “as committed as ever” to Worldcoin. Altman took part in the important discussions and actively contributed to many innovations. “His most important task is of course that of CEO of OpenAI. But he’s part of the team.”
Source: Krone
I’m Ben Stock, a journalist and author at Today Times Live. I specialize in economic news and have been working in the news industry for over five years. My experience spans from local journalism to international business reporting. In my career I’ve had the opportunity to interview some of the world’s leading economists and financial experts, giving me an insight into global trends that is unique among journalists.
