Sam Altman Co-Founder of Worldcoin Raises $115 Million for Unique Cryptocurrency

The Chief Executive Officer of OpenAI, Sam Altman, has raised $115 million in a Series C funding round for a cryptocurrency project. 

Blockchain Capital led the funding round and attracted the participation of other investors such as a16z, Bain Capital Crypto, and Distributed Global.

OpenAI co-founder raises $115M for Worldcoin project

Worldcoin is a decentralized open-source protocol that was co-founded by the CEO of OpenAI. 

The project is currently in the beta phase and being created around the Worldcoin token and the decentralized World ID.

The Worldcoin project has already attracted almost two million people, showing that it is fast attracting interest across the cryptocurrency industry. 

The capital raised by the company in the recent funding round will go towards boosting research, growth, and development efforts for the Worldcoin project and the World App. 

World App is the first cryptocurrency wallet created for the Worldcoin ecosystem.

The Worldcoin project will distribute a crypto token that targets people based on their need “just for being a unique individual.” 

The project will also use a device to scan the irises and to confirm the identity of these users, after which they will receive these tokens.

Tools for Humanity is the company behind the Worldcoin project. 

The $115 million raised in this funding round is unexpected, given the ongoing crypto bear market that has slowed down investments by venture capitalists in the industry.

TFH has closed our Series C led by @blockchaincap.

In the age of AI, the ability to prove humanness in a privacy-preserving way is imperative. We look forward to building more tools and resources to help the Worldcoin project do just that.https://t.co/mLbCoSC9yA

— Tools For Humanity (@tfh_technology) May 25, 2023

The CEO and co-founder of Tools for Humanity, Alex Blania, said, 

As we embark on the age of AI, it is imperative that individuals are able to maintain personal privacy while proving their humanness. In doing so we can help ensure that everyone can realize the financial benefits that AI is poised to deliver.

Worldcoin project faces criticism

The Worldcoin cryptocurrency project is currently criticized because of the perceived privacy risks. 

The former US intelligence contractor, Edward Snowden, had previously criticized the project, saying it was not wise to catalog eyeballs.

This looks like it produces a global (hash) database of people's iris scans (for "fairness"), and waves away the implications by saying "we deleted the scans!"

Yeah, but you save the *hashes* produced by the scans. Hashes that match *future* scans.

Don't catalogue eyeballs. https://t.co/uAk0NYGeZu

— Edward Snowden (@Snowden) October 23, 2021

The safety and privacy of the collected information continue to raise concerns amid recent reports that a black market was spotted in Chinese social media and ecommerce platforms where sellers offered interested parties access to KYC verifications for World App.

The credentials being sold on the sites come from developing countries. Worldcoin has issued a statement on the matter, saying there were many instances of such activity on online platforms, adding that no sensitive data has ever been accessed by unauthorized parties.

Worldcoin is going viral especially in mainland of China，even though the region can't register the app

crypto users are finding a new way：buying "iris"（$30 or cheaper）to register the worldcoin app and get the reward($20）. These iris are from Cambodia village、Africa… pic.twitter.com/BQlGCpob1W

— BlockBeats｜We're hiring! (@BlockBeatsAsia) May 18, 2023

The firm has also admitted an ongoing threat and awareness in monitoring the measures. 

The Worldcoin team also said there was suspicious and potentially fraudulent activity where individuals received incentives when they registered for a verified World ID that was later delivered to a World App owned by third parties.

The funding round comes at a time when OpenAI has been in the spotlight following the release of the ChatGPT tool. 

Interest in artificial intelligence has grown significantly, and there have been calls to regulate the sector.

Related:
– Why Coinbase-backed Worldcoin is Unlikely to Succeed
– Sam Altman’s Worldcoin Introduces App for Eyeball-Scanning Crypto Project