Spain tells Sam Altman, Worldcoin to shut down its eyeball-scanning orbs
arstechnica.com
Cryptocurrency launched by OpenAI's Altman is drawing scrutiny from regulators.
  • Spain has moved to block Sam Altman’s cryptocurrency project Worldcoin, the latest blow to a venture that has raised controversy in multiple countries by collecting customers’ personal data using an eyeball-scanning “orb.”
  • Worldcoin has registered 4 million users, according to a person with knowledge of the matter. Investors poured roughly $250 million into the company, including venture capital groups Andreessen Horowitz and Khosla Ventures, internet entrepreneur Reid Hoffman and, prior to the collapse of his FTX empire, Sam Bankman-Fried.
  • “I want to send a message to young people. I understand that it can be very tempting to get €70 or €80 that sorts you out for the weekend,” España Martí said, but “giving away personal data in exchange for these derisory amounts of money is a short, medium and long-term risk.”
  • Sharing such biometric data, she said, opened people up to a variety of risks ranging from identity fraud to breaches of health privacy and discrimination.
  • Ogmios@sh.itjust.works
    15·
    8 months ago

    Anybody remember how cryptocurrency was supposed to democratize money or something?

    Smokescreen to get people who don’t really understand computers to buy into a system which can be easily controlled by those who produce/own the physical devices involved, while hiding their tracks near perfectly.

    • Hazzia@discuss.tchncs.de
      6·
      8 months ago

      That’s definitely what it became, but I remember back in the day it was pretty much just what people used to buy the weeds on their Tor browsers.

      • Ogmios@sh.itjust.works
        3·
        8 months ago

        If I remember correctly, wasn’t Bitcoin originally created for trading Magic: The Gathering cards online?

        • Snarwin@kbin.social
          2·
          8 months ago

          You’re thinking of Mtgox, a Magic card trading website that reinvented itself as a Bitcoin exchange—and then disappeared with its users’ money.