- As per sources, the fresh funds will help Worldcoin scale the project to other parts of the world.
- Worldcoin has assured that it will take the utmost care with securing user privacy in exchange for their biometrics.
Eye scanning cryptocurrency project Worldcoin is getting major prominence in a very short time. Launched last year in October 2021, Worldcoin is preparing for another $100 million fundraise which could push its valuation to $3 billion.
Citing anonymous sources, The Information reported that the funding round involves top venture capital firms like Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) and Khosla Ventures. The project led by Sam Altman came to life last October 2021 with its Series A funding round led by a16z and other players such as Coinbase Ventures, Digital Currency Group, and Multicoin.
Some of the industry’s famous personalities like LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman and FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried have also participated in the funding.
Understanding in simple terms, the Worldcoin project involves an orb-shaped eyeball scanner that gives each person a unique identification. The project then rewards free crypto – Worldcoin – to all the participants. As per its initial plan, Worldcoin was planning to install 50,000 scanners yearly. The company also believes that crypto incentives will attract billions of users to the platform. Worldcoin is an Ethereum-based cryptocurrency.
As per reports, Worldcoin is in need of additional funds to secure the project. Just last week, Bloomberg reported the company has paused work in nearly 7/20 countries it was working in. The publication said that “local contractors departed or regulations made doing business impossible”.
Addressing privacy concerns
The nature of the Worldcoin project has drawn scrutiny from different regulatory bodies from across the globe. However, Worldcoin has said in its defense that apart from eye scanning, it doesn’t take any other personal information of the user. The company further explained that it translates the image into data and later discards the image.
But privacy icon Edward Snowden has argued that the company can potentially abuse the hashes of the scan. But back then, founder Sam Altman assured that Worldcoin takes the right care of user privacy. He noted:
I think Worldcoin is more privacy-preserving than centralized services we use today. All Worldcoin, or anyone, could ever tell is if someone has already signed up for the service. The hash is cryptographically decoupled from the wallet and all future transactions. Experimentation with new approaches to privacy and identity seem good to me. Everyone can decide what they want to use and not use.
As per Bloomberg data, Worldcoin has already scanned nearly half-a-million people across 20 different countries. Expectations are that the new $100 million fundraise will help to get a lot more eyeballs.
The projects with unique user identification are likely to gather steam as we expand the digital ecosystem. However, assuring user privacy will remain one of the topmost requirements.
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