Last Friday, I had the unique experience of having a futuristic orb pointed at my face to start off the day. This was part of a brunch organized by Worldcoin, a crypto and identity startup co-founded by Sam Altman of OpenAI/ChatGPT fame, and Global Coin Research, a venture capital collective backing the project. Worldcoin has created a new way for humans to prove that they’re human and unique, and made it available today to developers so that they can build a myriad of applications.
The company has open-sourced the hardware and most of the software, including the protocol, to increase transparency, and says that none of the iris data is stored on their devices. After a couple of tries, I was able to get the internet connection to work and I clicked on the World App to download a grant, an airdrop of the beta token. I then pointed a QR code from my World App into the Orb’s two eyes and the administrator raised the melon-sized shiny silver Orb to my face. A large set of infrared lights shone under the cameras, and another white light started forming a circle around the cameras. After the circle was completed, the scan was done and I could forever prove that I am unique and human.
Admittedly, the process had some glitches, but, despite my worst fears, it was smoother and less intimidating than I expected, I thought to myself. On Monday, I awoke to some news. The Worldcoin network was launched, and since I had my iris scanned, I could claim 25 WLD.