『Orb』
image extraction: Firefly

While I’ve covered Worldcoin (WLD) several times in this blog, I became quite disappointed with it personally around the end of 2024.

This was because the Worldcoin smartphone app incorporated an option to receive a World ID by presenting identification documents such as a passport.

Specifically, it seems that passports, nationality certificates, and driver’s licenses are the three valid forms of identification.

Jack Dorsey tweeted at Sam Altman saying “Don’t steal eye data!” and my disappointment stems from deepening suspicions that collecting personal information might indeed be their ultimate goal.

If they’re accepting conventional identification methods like ID submission, it raises questions about what the whole eye data collection was even for.

I assume the official explanation would be that this authentication method was prepared for people who physically cannot access the Orb (the eye-scanning machine).

In fact, particularly in Europe, many countries can’t use Orb authentication due to legal and personal information protection concerns. I myself had to do it in Japan because I couldn’t do it in my country of residence.

While I understand these circumstances, allowing conventional personal authentication methods will inevitably lead to a decrease in individual (human) verification accuracy.

World ID Verification Accuracy

There’s no doubt that World ID had high reliability as a (human) certification precisely because it could only be obtained after physically going to where an Orb was located and having your eyes scanned.

The operators must surely understand this, so why did they decide to accept conventional IDs alone?

It’s probably either because they’re struggling to gather enough people, or they were primarily interested in collecting personal information from the start.

As of January 2025, with approximately 23 million registered users and about 10.7 million verified humans, it’s unclear whether the operators consider these numbers high or low, but

compared to the estimated 420 million crypto users worldwide, personally, these numbers don’t seem particularly hopeless.

Well, either way, it’s not really an exciting development.

Going Forward

I’ll continue using the app, but won’t actively purchase WLD on other exchanges.

In other words, I’ll (gratefully) accept the small amount of WLD that can be claimed monthly through the app as an observational measure, but I’ll sell my WLD holdings in the app and other exchanges while watching the price, and won’t consider new purchases.

Simply put, while I’m beginning to doubt the feasibility of the grand and exciting concept of “Universal Basic Income,” I haven’t completely rejected it.

While it would feel good to cut ties completely, I personally can’t help but feel drawn to this concept.
That said, if it hits €9 per WLD again, I plan to sell everything.

By the way, this isn’t because of recent talk about DeepSeek revolutionizing the AI industry and potentially ending Sam Altman’s career, nor do I believe that. It’s completely unrelated.

In fact, as of January 30, 2025, we haven’t reached a stage where such predictions can be made.

In any case, with a future where AI-equipped robots walking the streets just around the corner, it’s honestly disappointing to see this happen to Worldcoin, which had a concept oriented toward such a future.