The crypto industry is not a stranger to controversy, but few projects have drawn more thorough investigations than Sam Altman’s world, formerly known as Worldcoin.
Promises to verify human being through Iris’ sisters and distribute WLD token worldwide, The positions in the world itself as a tool for financial integration. However, critics are focusing on project biometric methods invasive, overly centralized, and in the odds with ethos of decentralization and digital privacy.
At the center of the criticism is the claim that S may not be truly decentralized when they rely on hardware ownership, closed validation methods, and centralized control over data pipelines.
“Decentralization is not just a technical architecture,” said Shady El Damaty, co-founder of the Holonym Foundation, Cointelegraph said. “It is a philosophy that appreciates user control, privacy, and self-SOURSign.
El Damaty argued that despite the use of tools such Multiparty Computation (MPC) and Proofs that zero-knowledge (ZK)The world’s reliance on custom hardware – the orb – and the centralized deployment of the code disrupts the decentralization it claims to be champion.
“It is by design to achieve their goals of unique recognition of individual people. This concentraction of power risks that creates a single point of failure and control, which disrupts the very promise of decentralization,” he said.
When reached for the comment, a speaker for the world pushed back against these claims. “The world does not use centralized biometric infrastructure,” they said, adding that the world app is non-custodial, meaning users remain controlled by their digital assets and the world’s IDs.
The project says once the Orb generates an Iris Code, the “Iris picture will be sent as an end-to-end encrypted data bundle to your phone and will be removed from Orb immediately.” The Iris Code, they claim, is processed with an anonymous multiparty calculation so “no personal data is stored.”
Evin McMullen, co -producing Privado ID and Billion -Billion.network, said the world’s biometric model is not “naturally incompatible” with decentralization but faces some challenges in implementing around data centralization, confidence, and administration.
Related: Sam Altman’s world raises $ 135m from Andreessen, Bain, to expand the network
A tech overreach pattern?
El Damaty has also drawn in parallel between the large size of Openai scraping “unscrupulous user data” and the collection of biometric information worldwide.
He argues that both reflect a pattern of aggressive data extraction that has been framing as a change, warning that such skills are a risk that destroys privacy and normalizing monitoring under the development banner.
“The irony here is difficult to miss,” El Damaty claimed. “Openai built its foundation by scraping a wide amount of unarmed user data to train its models, and now Worldcoin captures the same aggressive approach to obtaining data in the kingdom of biometric identity.”
In 2023, a class lawsuit Filed In California accused Openai and Microsoft of scraping 300 billion words from the Internet without permission, along with personal data from millions of users, such as children.
In 2024, a coalition of Canadian media, including the Canadian Press and CBC, Sued Openai for alleged use of their content without permission to train ChatGPT, which claims copyright violations.
However, the world rejects this comparison, emphasizing that it is a separate creature from Openai. The company also said that also does not sell or store personal data, citing the use of privacy preserved technologies such as multiparty computation and zero-knowledge proofs.
The thorough investigation also extends to the user’s onboarding worldwide. The project states that it ensures knowledge of permission through translated guides, a module learned by in-app, brochure, and a help center.
However, critics remain skeptical. “People in the development of countries, the world … are primarily targeted to this point, are easier to bribe and often misunderstand the dangers involved in the ‘sale’ of this personal data,” El Damaty warned.
Many global regulators pushed back Operation of the world Because of this Launch in July 2023with governments GermanyKenya and Brazil expresses concerns with potential risks in the security data of the users’ biometric data.
In the latest setback, the company Faced challenges in Indonesia After local regulators, registration certificates were temporarily suspended on May 5.
Related: ‘People can tell when it’s a person’ – the community is joking about WorldCoin’s Orb Mini
The risk of digital exception
As biometric systems such as the Gain Traction of the world, questions are emerging about its long -term implications. While the company is promoting its model as a companion, critics say hope for the Iris scanning to unlock services can deepen the inequality of the world.
“When biometric data becomes a requirement for accessing basic services, it effectively creates a two-tiered society,” El Damaty said. “Those who are prepared (or forced) to give up their most sensitive information get accessible … while those who refuse … are not included.”
The world maintains that its protocol does not require biometric enrollment for basic participation. “You can still use an unspecified World ID for some purposes even if you have not visited an ORB,” it said, adding that the system uses ZKPs to avoid linking actions to any specific ID or biometric data.
There are also concerns that the world can be a tracking tool – especially to authority regimes – through centralized biometric data in a way that can attract the misuse of powerful actors.
The world eliminates these claims, asserting that its ID protocol is “open resource, without permission,” and designed so that even government applications cannot restore a user’s activity to their biometric data.
The debate also extends to management. As the World says its protocol is moving toward more decentralization-its highlighting open resources contributions and its white paper management section-critics have argued that significant user ownership is still lacking.
“We need to develop systems that allow individuals to prove their humanity without creating centralized repositors of biometric or personal data,” El Damaty said. “This means to embrace proof zero-knowledge, decentralized management, and open standards that empower individuals, not corporations.”
Related: Sam Altman’s eye-scan eye-scan launched the World in the US
The need for safe identity systems
Easy behind the development of safe identity systems is not worthy. As artificial intelligence grows more sophisticated, lines between humans and not human online actors fade.
“The NEXUS risks of AI and identity are not limited to any type of government system or region,” McMullen’s Privado ID said. He admitted that without reliable verification for both AI people and agents, digital ecosystems face growing threats – from misinformation and fraud to national security weaknesses.
“This is a national security nightmare, in which countless, inevitable non-human actors can now engage in global systems and networks, and legacy systems are not built for these types of verification and contextual logic,” McMullen added.
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