A British regulator has sounded the alarm over Worldcoin, amid fears about the biometric data that the controversial crypto project is gathering.
The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), which champions privacy for individuals, has told Decrypt that organizations need to conduct a Data Protection Impact Assessment before beginning to process "high risk" data—a key component of Worldcoin’s operations.
Co-founded by AI wunderkind Sam Altman, the crypto project is aiming to offer digital passports to millions of people by scanning their irises—and on Monday, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin raised fears that this could expose someone's sex, ethnicity, and even certain medical conditions.
Worldcoin Launch Supply Mostly Made of Market Maker Loans
As Worldcoin’s native token WLD surged on Monday, the identity-oriented organization released a whitepaper explaining its tokenomics, providing key insights into the newly launched coin. WLD’s total supply, the maximum amount of coins created by the network, will be fixed at 10 billion WLD for at least the network’s first 15 years, according to the document. After that period, in the year 2038, an inflation rate of 1.5% could be instituted by voters. Minted ahead of launch, the 10 billion tokens...
The ICO went on to warn that Worldcoin's activities needed to be consensual and freely given—with those undergoing a scan also able to withdraw from the project without detriment.
"We note the launch of Worldcoin in the U.K. and will be making enquiries," an ICO spokesperson said in a statement emailed to Decrypt.
It's worth noting that the ICO has teeth in the event of serious data breaches. The regulator can issue fines of up to £17.5m ($22.5m) or 4% of a company's global turnover—whichever is higher. And back in April, it imposed a £12.7m ($16.3m) fine on TikTok amid allegations that the social network misused children's data.
Despite the watchdog's ongoing enquiries, Worldcoin is continuing with its rollout in Britain.
Sam Altman's Worldcoin Protocol Launches WLD Token on Optimism Mainnet
The Worldcoin Protocol has launched after migrating to the OP Mainnet, previously known as the Optimism layer-2 blockchain, development partners the Worldcoin Foundation and Tools for Humanity announced today. The migration also signals the highly anticipated launch of the project's native WLD token. "This is a huge deal," Tiago Sada, head of product, engineering and design at Tools for Humanity, told Decrypt in an interview. "The project has been in beta for a while now and in development for e...
Orbs, the hardware devices that scan a user's eye in exchange for a World ID, have now been installed in three London locations. Given the U.K. has a population of 67.3 million people—58 million of them outside the capital—adoption is unlikely to be rapid.
Worldcoin is yet to respond to Decrypt's request for comment—but on its website, the project insists it is "fully compliant with all laws and regulations governing biometric data collection and transfer, including Europe's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)."
To complicate matters further, GDPR technically no longer applies to the UK following Brexit.
However, the framework has mostly been retained in domestic laws—meaning the country has the independence to keep it under review.
