Altman has shown himself to be both a Technocrat and Transhuman, convinced that Universal Basic Income is the answer to job-displacing automation, AI and robots. He is scanning irises all over the world to prove that no two persons’ eyes are the same, thus paving the way for a universal ID. — Technocracy News & Trends Editor Patrick Wood

By: Ryan Browne via CNBC

It sounds like something out of a sci-fi movie — metallic orbs that scan people’s eyes to pay them in digital currency.

That’s what tech investor Sam Altman has been working on for his new start-up, a company called Worldcoin. Launched out of “stealth” on Thursday, Worldcoin promises to hand out free cryptocurrency to people who verify their accounts by taking an iris scan.

Worldcoin says it’s already attracted $25 million in funding from Silicon Valley investors including Andreessen Horowitz, Coinbase and billionaire LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman, giving the firm a $1 billion valuation.

Altman, CEO of artificial intelligence group OpenAI and former president of start-up accelerator Y Combinator, co-founded the company with theoretical physics student Alex Blania and Max Novendstern, a former investment associate at Bridgewater Associates.

The idea seems outlandish at first. Free money? And all I need to do is have my eyes scanned? It sounds too good to be true.

However, Worldcoin’s founders say it’s about expanding the reach of cryptocurrencies — and financial services more broadly — to the masses. Less than 3% of the global population are crypto users, according to virtual currency exchange Crypto.com.

“Cryptocurrency is a very powerful thing,” Blania, Worldcoin’s CEO, told CNBC. “It will widen the boundaries of the economy in general and give many people access.”
How it works

Worldcoin has already shipped its orb-shaped devices to people in 12 countries. Testers get users to sign up by having their iris scanned. The image is then encrypted and becomes a unique code, while the original data is deleted to protect users’ privacy. Following that, users are given a free share of Worldcoin’s cryptocurrency.

“We designed the whole system to be fundamentally privacy-preserving,” Blania said. “The iris code itself is the only thing leaving the orb. There’s no big database of biometric data.”

The company has so far amassed over 100,000 users globally already, and is onboarding 700 more each week. Worldcoin aims to hit 1 billion users by 2023.

Which raises a big question — how exactly is Worldcoin meant to be used?

‘Infrastructure’ for basic income

It’s a concept that has parallels to a universal basic income, or UBI, which has been promoted by Altman and several other high-profile figures in tech.

The idea is that, by handing out cash regularly to citizens for free, governments can mitigate the impacts of artificial intelligence and automation on workers.

Blania hinted that Worldcoin could be used as the “infrastructure” to carry out UBI at some point in the future.”

“I’m personally very excited about UBI over the long term,” Blania said. “I think it’s a very hard thing to implement right now.”