Alex Blania, CEO of Tools for Humanity, said in a group interview during the Korea Blockchain Week 2024 event in Seoul on Wednesday: World Coin World
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We are currently focused on mass distributing the iris scanning “sphere” to scale the project and make it more useful.
“I think fundamentally, similar to other networks like PayPal or Facebook that have emerged over the past few decades, they only become useful once they get to scale,” Blania said. “So what we care about now is global distribution and the number of users who are verified and using the service.”
Worldcoin is It is a project of Tools for Humanity, a company co-founded by Blania and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. The project has a vision of protecting people from potential negative influences by assigning a “World ID” to individuals who scan their irises with an Orb device, proving that they are human. From AI. Signers are given WLD cryptocurrency, and Worldcoin has over 6.5 million verified World IDs in over 160 countries around the world. Website.
Next generation orb
Blania said at KBW2024 that the project would be announcing “exciting updates” about its next-generation Orb device, which is expected to be released in the coming weeks.
“The only new thing I can share here for the update is that it centers around the operating model,” Blania said. “So there will be changes in how you use these devices, and there will be adjustments that can have a relatively large impact.”
The WorldCoin CEO added that the project is also in discussions with Korean gaming industry players for potential collaborations.
Worldcoin is also preparing for launch. Own Layer 2 networkWorld Chain recently announced partnerships with blockchain development companies such as Hyperlane, Moralis, and more to make it easier for users to use the new mainnet.
“This is an Optimism superchain, similar to Coinbase’s Base,” Blania said. “And (the reason for launching) is that there’s already too much scale on the Optimism mainnet. So we’re moving from Polygon to the Optimism mainnet and launching Layer 2.”
Addressing regulatory issues
Meanwhile, Worldcoin has faced regulatory scrutiny from regulators in several jurisdictions, including Colombia, Spain, and South Korea, some of which have questioned Worldcoin’s collection of human iris data as a potential privacy violation. In May, Hong Kong authorities ordered Worldcoin to cease operations there.
“The technologies we use are very advanced in terms of privacy-enhancing technologies, and that requires a lot of education,” said Damien Kiran, chief privacy officer at Tools for Humanity. “So the existing legal frameworks tend to evaluate these things in one way, and what we do is work with regulators to make sure they understand what we’re doing, and then make the adjustments that are necessary.”
Earlier this year in March, Worldcoin added an update that gave users control over their scanned iris data.
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