Sam Altman and the orbe machine that Worldcoin uses to scan eyeballs.

“Yes, the truth is yes,” replied Worldcoin’s CEO in Europe when asked if he does not believe that, from the outside, everything he is explaining to this journalist seems to be drawn from a dystopian novel. His company wants to scan the eyeball of the entire world population with an unusual device they have invented and called “orbe.” According to him, this mission is vital to be able to differentiate humans from robots when artificial intelligences invade everything.  Something that will happen sooner rather than later in the judgment of its founder, Sam Altman, who turns out to be also the head of the team that controls one of those artificial intelligences that can be passed on by people because of their ability to simulate how we express ourselves, ChatGPT.

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But there's still the final twist, because in this project there are also cryptocurrencies. It is the reward for those who agree to stand in front of the orb to record their iris and grant them a certificate of “human”. The project coin is also called worldcoin and started its quote last week. The company gets information from each volunteer's eyeball for 25 worldcoins, which at this Thursday's exchange is around 54 euros. More than 2,165,000 people have considered it a good business, according to their data. You could also say that you've been convinced that it's a good business, because the company's strategy is based on capturing eyeballs in malls.

From a stand with a pair of “orbe” machines, several commercials intercept the people who pass to present the project to them. “He’s a minutite all alone! I’m not going to sell you anything,” they launch those who, already accustomed to these techniques, look at them but don’t stop. It's right, because what you're going to do is buy: to do the iris transaction for cryptocurrencies, all you have to do is download an app, accept the privacy policy and put 10 seconds in front of the device.

Spain, test field

Worldcoin officially launched last week, but has been present in Spain for over a year. Together with Portugal, the country has been the protagonist of the European beta phase of the Worldcoin plan. This is why Spain adds more than 150,000 users verified as “human” through its iris. They are in six large shopping centres in Madrid, four in Barcelona and one in Palma, in Mallorca.

The project has managed to recruit a couple million users during its testing period, but now it is when it intends to really accelerate. A letter from Sam Altman and Alex Blania, his other co-founder, provided the starting signal and the announcement that 15,000 new iris scanners will be sent in the coming days to 30 new cities. In Spain, Seville and Valencia will join the list.

But why the iris? Why design a new machine from scratch for that? Iris is a biometric trait that is very difficult to modify and is not associated with other identity elements (it has no congenital attributes, for example), while its scanner processes the eyeball and automatically associates it with an identification number without the eyeball image leaving the device. The latter will only be so if the user requests it, as the company requests permission to store the information in its databases to improve the system’s recognition capacity.

At the moment, the Spanish Data Protection Agency has not put a stop to the project. Other European regulators, such as French, have announced that they will send a number of questions to Worldcoin coinciding with their landing on their territory, although not formal investigations. Specialist lawyers in this area consulted by elDiario explain that the most sensitive thing is the fact that the company does with the data what it says it does. If the information in the iris is found to be used for purposes not covered by the consents asked of users, problems for Worldcoin would start.

What's the business here?

Sam Altman makes sure that the marketing of all the projects he embarks on highlights their global impact. He made a tour in which he interviewed presidents from 17 countries, including Pedro Sánchez, to talk to them about the potential of ChatGPT and the danger of someone using a technology similar to yours for evil purposes. It also invests in a nuclear fusion company, a kind of revolutionary energy that some consider key to abandoning fossil fuels.

With Worldcoin it's no different. Behind that global initiative that aims to offer a method for no person to be confused with an AI on the Internet, is the creation of a secure digital identification system. Your plan is to offer something similar to Google or Facebook when they allow you to identify on third-party services using the data they already have and without having to create a new account. The method would be supported by biometric identification and anticipate the problem of AI being able to create user accounts for themselves.

Also, you will have a Worldcoin wallet that will only have space for three currencies: bitcoin, ethereum and your own. It is a method of “simplifying” the world, but also of creating a new platform in a sector that has accumulated bankruptcies and has remained with a single giant, Binance, who is also being investigated by US justice.