New lipstick, same pig
What do you do when regulators say your company is breaking the law? Of course, the easiest and most logical thing is to rename the company!
That's what people running an organization, formerly known as Worldcoin, did. Welcome to the World — the real human network.
You might remember a post from July 2023 when Worldcoin was launched. The title was Worldcoin Madness.
Yours truly noted who the founders were — Sam Altman of OpenAI and Alex Blania of Tools for Humanity.
The post also described the organization’s goals, which only naysayers would dismiss. The company was set on increasing economic opportunity, creating a solution to distinguish humans from AI, enabling global democratic processes and showing a path to Universal Basic Income (UBI) funded by AI.
The aim of World(coin), while creating 'the real human network,' is to create 'identity, finance and community for every human.' To achieve that, the organization is providing three tools:
WorldID — a digital proof of humanity for the internet. Securely and anonymously proves you are human online.
World App — provides simple and easy access to the World Network.
World Chain — a blockchain designed for real humans.
How can you get on board? It can't be any easier.
You look into a device — Orb, an open-source gadget that verifies whether you are a unique human.
Your retina gets scanned and voila, you get your WorldID, and, from now on, you can prove you are human.
Where to find an Orb?
There are 333 locations around the world or you can become an Orb operator. Get your own Orb and you can start scanning people's eyes.
To achieve trustworthiness and transparency, the Worldcoin Foundation was incorporated in the Cayman Islands as an ‘exempted limited guarantee foundation company.’ It is ‘memberless,’ meaning it has no shareholders.
Another entity, World Assets Limited, is a business company incorporated in the British Virgin Islands. The Worldcoin Foundation is the sole member of World Assets Ltd. This entity is responsible for issuing the 7.5B Worldcoin tokens (WLD) that have been allocated to the Worldcoin community. And, finally, to keep things simple, Tools for Humanity (TFH) is a Delaware corporation headquartered in San Francisco, California (US), with a wholly-owned subsidiary, Tools for Humanity GmbH, based in Germany.
The World(coin) Foundation’s goal is noble and straight to the point. Its aim is 'to realize more inclusive, fair and just institutions of governance and of the global digital economy.'
But it’s not without its risks, which the organization felt the need to outline in a seven-page document.
Among many risks, it lists the actions of Orb operators.
'We are not able to control or predict the actions of Orb operators, users or third parties, and we may be unable to protect or provide a safe environment for these operators.'
Later, they say, 'Such actions may result in injuries, property damage, or loss of life for operators, users and third parties, reputational damage to World Network, or significant liabilities for us.'
Loss of life?!?!?
One should also note Orb operators are completely independent from the World organization and any problems they run into are their own?
Did you say problems?
A few notable ones:
The Office of the Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data in Hong Kong executed warrants in January 2024. The Office later found Worldcoin violated privacy rules by collecting the face and iris images of those participating in the project.
The Spanish Data Protection Agency (AEPD) ordered Worldcoin to stop its activity of ‘collect[ing]... biometric data’ and to ‘block all data collected in Spanish territory’ in March 2024.
The Portuguese data protection authority issued a temporary order to prevent data collection in March 2024.
And these are from 2024. Kenya, Germany, the UK and India raised similar concerns in 2023.
So far, World received $250 million in funding and the next phase in the WorldID domination is to scale.
I am sure that soon you will be exposed to marketing messages promoting an 'Orb for every household, for every real human.'
But why all that? Obviously, it is to defend humanity from AI. The same AI that is being built by OpenAI.
One very responsible company is very responsibly building AI, and, as a coincidence, we have an organization, aptly named World, which will redistribute the wealth created by AI to every real human.
And there is one guy who runs both...
What happens when governments don’t like the idea? Not to worry. There are others who are planning to start company states called 'network states.' These entities '...acquire land, becoming physical “countries” with their own laws. These would exist alongside existing nation states, and eventually, replace them altogether.'
And you thought the Metaverse was a crazy idea.
Recurrent pattern? Regardless of how many times you change the company name, regardless of how many noble words you use, regardless of how many times you change the lipstick — it is still a pig.