Worldcoin Wants to Pay You For Your Eyeball — Here’s Why You Shouldn’t

Amanda Claypool
9 min readAug 21, 2023
Photo by Cam on Unsplash

Worldcoin might be the most important financial innovation since Bitcoin. Yet, very few people are talking about it.

What is it exactly? Worldcoin is a crypto project that combines biometrics with decentralized finance. You open an account by scanning your eye, which provides the basis for verifying your identity. Once you’re in, you can earn Worldcoin’s native token, WLD.

In theory, Worldcoin solves two major problems in the age of AI. It has found a way to differentiate a human from a machine while providing that human with a pathway to earn an income once automation takes their jobs.

In practice, however, nothing of this scope or scale has been attempted before. Biometric scanning tied to a digital financial record could have unintended consequences that the world might not be prepared to handle just yet.

This essay will dive into what Worldcoin is, how it works, and why you should be skeptical of it. If you weren’t previously aware of Worldcoin, you will want to start paying attention to it after reading this.

Worldcoin is a cryptocurrency project and digital financial system that validates human identity through an iris scan.

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Amanda Claypool

I write about the future of the world as it’s unfolding. Download my reading list: https://bit.ly/3xvJZf6