Even with activity suspended in several countries due to privacy concerns, including Portugal, Worldcoin maintains its intention to expand the iris scanning business to serve as proof of humanity.

At the company’s first global event, which served to announce some more launches and services, there was a lot of talk about privacy but without any reference to the limitations and restrictions they face around the world. Alex Blania, one of the founders, announced that the company has already “verified 15 million users, seven million for an Orb,” the round mirrored device that until a few months ago was still visible in various parts of Portugal. According to Blania, the company managed to verify “one in seven people in Lisbon”, but without referring to the fact that the company had not operated in Portugal for months, following the suspension imposed by the National Data Protection Commission (CNPD). ), in March.

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Worldcoin was created in 2019, with the goal of creating a digital identity preservation solution, called World ID, and also a digital asset, called Worldcoin (WLD), which is received “simply by proving that you are human.” The digital token was officially launched in July, equivalent to $2.11.

Worldcoin’s plan for future authentication using iris scanning and virtual currency in the mix. CNPD has already carried out an inspection

Accessing the World ID verification system is done by going to an Orb, so you can scan your iris and prove that you are human. One of the minds behind the company is Sam Altman, who runs the artificial intelligence (AI) company OpenAI, creator of ChatGPT. It is no coincidence that there are always so many references to the need to prove that one is human: the company believes that AI is evolving to a point where it will be increasingly difficult to distinguish the human from the artificial.

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At this Thursday’s event, the company, which will change its name to Just World, announced that it wants to expand its digitalization operations to territories such as Costa Rica, Brazil, Indonesia, Panama, United Arab Emirates, Morocco, Taiwan, Australia, Hungary and Romania. Once again, without any note for the limitations in other countries.

The desire to expand the presence to new spaces, to reach the goal of “one billion users”, also involves alliances. Without fully explaining in which markets or with what requirements, the company wants to work with “partner stores, for example, cafes and convenience stores,” where it wants to install Orbs. “This allows people to not only discover the project by finding an Orb at a local business, but also scan it on site,” explained Rich Heley, the company’s team leader, who previously worked at Apple, Meta and Tesla.

“Partnerships are key to expanding Orb locations and achieving greater distribution,” he added.

Orb will also enter the 2.0 era, that is, a new version of the team will appear. The company says it wants to have “many more Orbs, a thousand more” and that it is working with “independent manufacturers” to accelerate this production.

Worldcoin also wants to start selling or renting Orb to ordinary users, another expansion step. “We want a new type of operator: anyone will be able to rent or buy the new Orb to verify the identity of anyone in their community.” No prices were revealed or if there are requirements to ensure that this activity is carried out in compliance with data protection regulations or in which markets it will be available. According to the company’s announcement, those who place orders will only receive the device “in the spring.”

Also revealed was the intention to create a way to “ask” Orb to meet the user as if they were ordering food. The company complained that in some countries there are difficulties in “accessing” the Orbs. Once again, no market was revealed, only the reference to a partnership with the delivery company Rappi, which operates in Latin America.

Currently, Worldcoin activity is suspended in Portugal and Spain. It has also been the subject of research and analysis in countries such as France, England or Argentina to understand how data is collected and processed. In Kenya it was suspended for a few months, but operations resumed in July, according to Reuters.

Passports and ID cards from some countries will be used to join the authentication service.

In the Worldcoin narrative, the company’s authentication service, World ID, can be used to prove on the Internet that the user is human. According to the company’s logic, the more services that are supported, the better.

But, according to Adrian Ludwig, director of information security at Tools for Humanity (the organization against Worldcoin), there are still those who cannot reach an Orb to prove their identity. For this reason, a trial version will be launched in which people will be able to join the authentication service using identification documents, created by official entities, such as a passport or driving license. In theory, a unique document for each person.

References to privacy were limited: “We guarantee that passport information does not leave your phone, we will not transfer it to the cloud,” the executive stated.

For now, the test will begin with “American passports,” but the list of flags presented by the company as compatible with the test included the United Kingdom, Argentina, Germany, France, South Korea or Japan.

The identification documents that are scanned by the company in this trial will be available in the World App, where those who have subscribed to the service will be able to see how many tokens they have or interact with other services.