Just When You Think the Bovine Refuse
Could Not Get Any More Thick,
Along Comes Worldcoin and Its Absurdly Comical Orb
Worldcoin is the latest digital project of Sam Altman, the Pied Piper of AI and CEO of OpenAI and its ChatGPT. Worldcoin was launched July 24, 2023, according to Forbes Advisor, July 26, 2023. There are several problems with both the concept of, and execution of, Worldcoin. First of all, the name sounds too much like WorldCom. And that didn't work out so well.
The primary mission of Worldcoin is the creation of "a globally-inclusive identity and financial network, owned by the majority of humanity," as Worldcoin declares in its Mission Statement in its Whitepaper posted on the very snazzy Worldcoin.org website.
There are two central components to Worldcoin. One side of Worldcoin is the WLD cryptocurrency. Worldcoin apparently has some very lofty intentions for its new crypto. "Where laws allow," as the Whitepaper goes on to make an incredulous offer to all us humans, whereby "Every human is eligible for a share of WLD simply for being human." However, there is one caveat here. In pure 21st century snake oil style, the Whitepaper says what us world citizens must do to get our fair share is: "To engage with the Worldcoin protocol, individuals must first download World App, the first wallet app that supports the creation of a World ID."
The notion that "Every human is eligible" to experience the Glory of the Orb and to partake in the Blessings of the WLD is one more example of the elitism so rampant among today's Titans of Tech. Everyone in Sam Altman's world may own a cellphone, but not everyone in this world owns a cellphone. According to most recent estimates made by bankmycell.com, in August 2023, "the number of people that own a smart and feature phone is 7.33 Billion, making up 91.04% of the world’s population." That leaves approximately 630,000,000 humans who are ineligible to experience the Wonders of Worldcoin.
The
purpose of the Orb is to perform
retinal scans to prove an
individual is a real live boy or girl. Every human is eligible.
The Orb’s first task is to determine if someone is an actual living person that is not attempting to defraud the verification. It does this with a variety of camera sensors and machine learning models that analyze facial and iris features. Once that determination is made, the Orb takes a set of pictures of the person’s irises and uses several machine learning models and other computer vision techniques to create an iris code, which is a numerical representation of the most important features of an individual’s iris pattern.
To take part in Altman's newest Frankenstein's Monster, "Individuals visit a physical imaging device called the Orb to get their World ID Orb-verified." The Worldcoin website describes the Orb as "an open iris imaging device." The overall scheme here is that "Most Orbs are operated by a network of independent local businesses called Orb Operators." [Whitepaper]
One might assume that to become an
Orb Operator, (or is that Orb Tender? —
maybe Orbinator?), would require a degree of specialized skills or
training given the advanced technology. Surely, some form of
certification in digital security must be a prerequisite given
that the Orb Tender will be responsible for collecting and storing such
sensitive personal information as hundreds, possibly thousands, of
individuals' retina scans. But, no, that does not seem to be the
case, here. At the right, is
the entire application to be an Orb Operator. Basic
info is name, address, telephone number, etc.
As in-depth as the application process gets is the question: "What experience or existing infrastructure can you leverage to become successful?" Of course, there is no definition or explanation of what "successful" means once one is orbiting in the Worldcoin solar system. Nevertheless, if chosen, the successful candidate will be provided "basic training," and then Worldcoin will "send you an Orb." "Start Operating" sounds an awful lot to me as the same as saying, "Now, you can begin your pyramid scheme." And fleece thy flock.
Surprisingly, but not really, according to Tom's Hardware, August 6, 2023, "Hundreds of people the world over are lining up to get their irises scanned by looking into a seemingly bottomless steel orb," and collecting $50 worth of WLD crypto for their trouble. Giving away a token prize for participating in a product launch is nothing new. Worldcoin has, however, received much criticism for its business practices. August 3, 2023, as reported in Time, the government of Kenya shut down Worldcoin's operations there due to privacy concerns. Reuters reported August 8, 2023 that the German government has, too, opened an investigation in to the practices of Worldcoin. The bad press has crypto watchers bracing for a crash of the price of WLD.
When one considers the sheer number of entities that have have suffered major data theft just over the past few months, why on Earth would anyone put their retinal scans into the hands of a startup operator, who is most likely a franchisee with little real experience in a new market, and who will most likely come with no track record for security? Hospitals, banks, investment houses, government agencies, have all suffered data breaches. A series of articles could be written about all the many ways ChatGPT has been victimized by cybercrooks. And any Joe or Jane can become an Orb Operator? Jeez...
As Europe gears up its investigations of Worldcoin, I tried to find out what was the US Federal Trade Commission's position on Worldcoin. The FTC has no position on Worldcoin. For what might be the most telling fact about the Worldcoin phenomenon is that neither Worldcoin nor its very weird Orb idea are available in these US of A. At least not yet.
The irony here is more than rich when the one person most singularly responsible for the easy creation and worldwide distribution of "deepfake" imitations of famous people, and some not so famous, now wants to insure an individual's identification and "Proof of Personhood." The Christian interpretation of his actions here would be to label this effort an "Act of Redemption." If I were Sam Altman, I would try some quiet pray instead.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Gerald Reiff