{"id":51641,"date":"2021-10-22T16:22:20","date_gmt":"2021-10-22T13:22:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/?p=51641"},"modified":"2025-09-03T00:54:04","modified_gmt":"2025-09-02T21:54:04","slug":"sam-altmans-worldcoin-valued-at-1-billion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/sam-altmans-worldcoin-valued-at-1-billion\/","title":{"rendered":"Sam Altman&#8217;s Worldcoin valued at $1 billion"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Worldcoin startup, behind the launch of the eponymous cryptocurrency, raised $25 million in a funding round led by venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz. Investors valued it at $1 billion, according to <a href=\\\"https:\/\/www.coindesk.com\/business\/2021\/10\/21\/worldcoin-now-valued-at-1b-has-grand-plans-to-get-you-to-gaze-into-the-orb\/\\\">CoinDesk<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Participating in the round were Coinbase Ventures, Digital Currency Group, and a group of angel investors, including FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried and LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman.<\/p>\n<p>Sam Altman <a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/crypto-startup-worldcoin-to-pay-users-for-iris-scans\">announced Worldcoin<\/a> in June 2021. The project collects users&#8217; biometric data, paying for it with its own cryptocurrency.<\/p>\n<p>Altman does not participate in the startup&#8217;s day-to-day operations, serving as an advisor. Worldcoin is led by Alexander Blania, who is listed as its co-founder.<\/p>\n<p>On October 21, Worldcoin officially unveiled its cryptocurrency, designed as a layer-2 solution for the Ethereum blockchain. The supply is capped at 10 billion coins: 8 billion will be distributed among users, 2 billion reserved for investors and the creation of the Worldcoin Foundation.<\/p>\n<p>The distribution of the digital currency will occur through scanning the retina with a spherical device, which the startup calls the Orb (sphere). It creates a unique digital IrisHash for each user, after which biometric data is deleted with no possibility of recovery.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Introducing Worldcoin, a new cryptocurrency that will be distributed fairly to as many people as possible.<\/p>\n<p>Details about how it works: <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/DLcAmUA4u3\">https:\/\/t.co\/DLcAmUA4u3<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/xC3W2U6Xi3\">pic.twitter.com\/xC3W2U6Xi3<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Sam Altman (@sama) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/sama\/status\/1451203161029427208?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">October 21, 2021<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p> <script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Blania noted that the size of the biometric payout depends on the stage of development at which a user joined the initiative \u2014 the more participants, the smaller the reward. He estimated the approximate amount at between $10 and $200.<\/p>\n<p>The cryptocurrency is credited in several tranches, distributed over two years. 10% of the payout is available immediately in the project&#8217;s digital wallet.<\/p>\n<p>Based on its own forecasting models, the startup expects that by 2023 Orb will be used by more than a billion people. According to Blania, Worldcoin is working with a &#8216;very large international manufacturer&#8217; that is ready to produce about 50,000 spheres per year. By November 2021, production lines will churn out 4,000 devices per month.<\/p>\n<p>Earlier in August, the developers of the MobileCoin cryptocurrency <a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/mobilecoin-developers-raise-66-million-in-funding\">raised $66 million in a Series B funding round<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Read ForkLog&#8217;s Bitcoin news on our Telegram \u2014 cryptocurrency news, rates and analysis.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Berlin-based startup Worldcoin, behind the launch of the eponymous cryptocurrency, raised $25 million in a funding round led by venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz. Investors valued it at $1 billion.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":26216,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"select":"1","news_style_id":"1","cryptorium_level":"","_short_excerpt_text":"","creation_source":"","_metatest_mainpost_news_update":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1486,1269,1133],"class_list":["post-51641","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","tag-biometrics","tag-cryptocurrencies","tag-venture-investments"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"views":"59","promo_type":"1","layout_type":"1","short_excerpt":"","is_update":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51641","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51641"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51641\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":51642,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51641\/revisions\/51642"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26216"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51641"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51641"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51641"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}