Worldcoin to scale up mass production of iris-scanning devices

Production and operation of Worldcoin’s iris-scanning Orb devices could become decentralized. This was stated by co-founder Alex Blania in a podcast The Scoop.

According to him, manufacturing incentives will be woven into the project’s tokenomics. However, open production of Orbs carries risks of unauthorized data collection by third parties, the developer noted.

Earlier Worldcoin announced details of the design of verifying devices, so other organisations could theoretically create their own versions.

“This will be like Bitcoin mining, which is mined to secure the network, where manufacturers will also earn WLD with every Orb they create and put into operation,” Blania explained.

Worldcoin will devote the entire next year to decentralisation and the organisation of mass production of iris-scanning machines. The project leader added that a range of manufacturers could participate in the creation of devices: from small companies to tech giants.

The startup headed by OpenAI’s Sam Altman announced the official launch on July 24. Its core product—the World ID protocol—is based on zero-knowledge proofs. It is a mobile tool that allows people to verify their identity using iris scanning or a phone number.

Blania also spoke about the launch of the WLD token. He noted that the project could not distribute more than 10% of the coins, as that would be “unfair”.

The Worldcoin co-founder responded to criticisms of the protocol’s tokenomics. He said that market makers are not interested in maintaining the price of WLD at a particular level.

According to CoinGecko, at the time of writing the asset was trading at $2.27, down 1% over the day. Its market capitalization stands at $266 million.

Earlier Worldcoin faced investigations by regulators in the United Kingdom, Germany and France. The Kenyan government suspended the company’s operations over concerns about citizens’ data security.

In July, Altman showed a long queue in Japan of people seeking biometric verification for WLD.