Wiser! Essay: Sam Altman has a plan for the world and it involves biometric identity management of a global crypto currency to raise the poorest in the world from poverty.

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Y-Combinator founder and OpenAI’s Sam Altman has shared his plans for a global universal basic income. However, lots of people didn’t like what they heard.

Altman’s new project is a cryptocurrency called Worldcoin, plus an innovative plan for rapid worldwide adoption. Altman pitched Worldcoin as a way to combat bots and false accounts online by scanning the irises of users, connected to their public identities.

To claim your Worldcoins, Altman wants you first to stare into a metal sphere called the Orb, which will scan your eyes. Having registered your unique human identity with the startup, you’ll be allotted your coins.

Global project to collect biometric data

It was no surprise that a Silicon Valley startup backed by money from VCs that want to build a database of biometrics from the world's poorest triggered the privacy debate. Calling the data collection device an "Orb" was hardly likely to soften any concerns that this is the mother of all big brothers!

The argument played out on Twitter lead by privacy campaigner Edward Snowden.

Worldcoin has already scanned over 100,000 eyes around the world; they say the scans are ‘not stored or uploaded’.

The startup has raised $25 million, on a $1 billion valuation, from VC firms including Andreessen Horowitz.

They aim to have distributed Worldcoin to 1 billion people by 2023. While Worldcoin wants to distribute their currency worldwide at lightning speed, they also plan to keep 20% of the total supply. Conveniently, their plan to make Worldcoin a global currency is also a plan to make themselves stupendously rich.

Source: New World Same Humans, Decrypt