“We don't take any ID or anything like that. As long as you look over 18, we scan your iris,” said Anna Howard, a contractor hired to lead onboarding in London. But everyone who signs up is “100% informed and knows what they're signing up for,” she added.
Everyone who was scanned was given a free T-shirt. The World Coin logo and the words “unique human” are printed on the front.
Over the next three hours, people continued to arrive for appointments with the orb, with varying degrees of knowledge about the project and motivations for staying there. Of the seven people interviewed by WIRED, none had any concerns about having their eyes scanned. There's no such thing as privacy these days, anyway, I was told. However, nearly all said they would have thought more about their decisions had Altman not been involved in the project.
“I'm a fan of Sam [Altman] It was for ChatGPT, so I thought I'd give it a try,'' says Greg King after the scan. “I know a little [about the Worldcoin project], but not the masses — I thought I'd catch up later. ”
Altman also appealed to another new entrant, Michael Aldridge, who had never heard of World Coin until that morning. “I still could have been here,” he said. “But I probably would have done a little more research.”
Some were there primarily for the crypto rewards, even if they were briefly interested in the identity proofing proposition. James Bryant explained that he is making a calculated bet that WorldCoin could become the next cryptocurrency to skyrocket in value. He was going to go into the first floor. “I think this might be my next chance,” he said. “It's the next big thing. How else can you move up the social ladder?”
Joe Sims, another new registrant, said, “It may sound greedy, but giving away virtual currency is… [was the reason I came.] I remember hearing about Bitcoin 10 years ago when it was $8, but I ignored it. Probably nothing would happen with this, and yes, I gave up on the iris — but it only took 5 minutes. ”
This logic seems to be driving a lot of interest in World Coin. The talk on the Discord server is almost exclusively about the 25-token “Genesis Grant” (valued at about $50) that will be given to those who sign up within the first week or before release. “It’s already been 2 days,” wrote one verified user who was still waiting to receive his payment. “In hindsight, I feel like his three days of travel to verify the Orb were wasted,” said another person on a similar boat.
Experts in tokenomics (the dynamics of issuance and supply of crypto tokens) say the structure of WorldCoin's launch jeopardized the project's bold ambitions from the get-go, potentially putting the general public currently buying the tokens at risk. They have expressed concern that it may be detrimental to the
The total supply of Worldcoin tokens will be initially limited to 10 billion. Three-quarters of that amount will be distributed to users over the next 15 years, and the rest will be divided between Tools for Humanity staff and investors, who must hold off on sales for at least the next 12 months.
