Crypto Startup That Wants To Scan Everyone's Eyeballs Is Having Some Trouble (bloomberg.com) 56
Worldcoin -- the billion-dollar startup that wants to give cryptocurrency to every living human by imaging their eyes -- has recently halted operations in at least seven countries due to a host of logistical hurdles that have prompted it to redraw its launch plans. From a report: Co-founded in 2020 by former Y Combinator chief Sam Altman, Worldcoin aims to photograph the irises of everyone on earth in order to identify them so it can distribute its new digital money fairly. So far, the company has collected images of the eyes of hundreds of thousands of people in about 20 countries. But the process has been bedeviled by problems such as uneven smartphone access, confused users and fraud attempts.
Worldcoin has suspended its work in multiple countries after local contractors departed or regulations made doing business impossible. After technical challenges, it also instituted a new requirement that anyone signing up must have a smartphone -- limiting its reach in developing nations, which have been key to the company's vision. Worldcoin has also repeatedly delayed its target launch date, which is now set for later this year. Worldcoin co-founder and Chief Executive Officer Alex Blania said in an interview last week that these setbacks are the natural result of "very aggressive testing" for a young startup. The company has grown from 10 employees to 100 in the last year, Blania said, and it's still experimenting as it hones its operations. "You're still talking to a Series A company, not an Uber," he said. "Things are not perfect."
Worldcoin has suspended its work in multiple countries after local contractors departed or regulations made doing business impossible. After technical challenges, it also instituted a new requirement that anyone signing up must have a smartphone -- limiting its reach in developing nations, which have been key to the company's vision. Worldcoin has also repeatedly delayed its target launch date, which is now set for later this year. Worldcoin co-founder and Chief Executive Officer Alex Blania said in an interview last week that these setbacks are the natural result of "very aggressive testing" for a young startup. The company has grown from 10 employees to 100 in the last year, Blania said, and it's still experimenting as it hones its operations. "You're still talking to a Series A company, not an Uber," he said. "Things are not perfect."
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Too many CCP and Putin bots that swarmed to downvote all "disallowed" posts?
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Lol, of course after I post this, mod points come back, I get modded troll, and then receive 5 mod points.
My understanding from the logistics end (Score:2)
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You just made me OD on life itself.
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That was the 64 million dollar question - wasn't it?
This is cryptocurrency, so that was yesterday. Now it's the $1.50 question. Tomorrow it will be ?
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My consequence: bio-metrics involving scanning your eyeball are now useless since some random company has your eyeball scan. I think bio-metrics are only a low level of security anyway useful for convenience than high security.
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Where are the right wing conspiracy and ultra-libertarians complaining against this?
It's crypto. It must be good, because it's not liberal fiat money that has inflation*.
* No implied guarantee of price stability is offered.
That will cost you (Score:4, Funny)
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They can scan my middle finger for free
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Hopefully you don't use that finger for fingerprint ID anywhere
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I'm sorry, it has to be done.
Hopefully you don't use that finger for fingerprint ID anywhere
Nah, but I do use it to fingerbang yer mom three nights a week.
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I'm sorry, it has to be done.
No, it was completely unnecessary.
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Only if you have no sense of humor. Which, I get, is a big modern character trait to brag about.
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"I had sex with your mother"
Let's see if that gets a +5 funny.
They will not be getting (Score:2)
a scan of my eyes.
Am I the only one? (Score:2)
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Crypto is short for cryptography not cryptocurrency.
Sorry, but you're outnumbered. Welcome to language, the only fully democratic institution we have. (And like all democratic institutions, it sucks at least a little bit.)
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You can't change your biometrics. (Score:5, Insightful)
When your password gets compromised you can easily change it so something else. You can't do it with biometrics though. You can't chop off your finger and get a new one, or poke out your eyeball and replace it. Your biometrics identfy you forever. Using biometrics for security purposes is, therefore, an absolutely mad idea. Sharing your biometrics with anyone who doesn't need them for their operation (government, border force, etc), especially with 3rd parties and private companeis in general, borders on madness.
Re:You can't change your biometrics. (Score:4, Insightful)
Ah, you have hit upon their real business model. Create a stupid cryptocurrency scheme during its bubble period, then when it inevitably collapse they have an invaluable treasure trove of uniquely valuable personal data to monetize. Even if the sale of said data is made illegal, fortunes on the darknet await to be made.
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Partly true. Specifically, one can shift to a different finger for fingerprint biometrics. Biometric sensors often have uniquenesses to their detection mechanisms which mean that one machine's 'fingerprint data' won't pass another design. And that just gets funkier if we stack biometric with other controls ("hey, that gummy finger doesn't have a pulse").
And just as we can configure security to vary (e.g., "default to password only, but these privileged accounts need 2FA tokens"), we could default to b
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You can do "must have a pulse" type of stuff if you control the hardware, i.e. you are in a high security area. If you are logging on to a remote sever were the hacker has control of the reader and modify it then all those are bypassable.
need an law saying that you own your biometrics (Score:2)
need an law saying that you own your own biometrics.
Can can't sell them in any contract, EULA , etc.
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Your biometrics identfy you forever.
That's kind of the point of them.
Sharing your biometrics with anyone who doesn't need them for their operation [...] borders on madness
Biometrics (something you are) are not like passwords (something you know). You've shared your appearance with everyone that's seen a photo of you, your gait with everyone that's seen you walk, and you fingerprints with everything you've ever touched. Those are all forms of biometrics. They are an attribute of who you physically are, and it shouldn't matter who share them with.
What is important with biometrics is that the biometric data in question is indeed an attribute of
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The problem here is that if your biometric leak, someone can impersonate you from now on until forever, with 100% success. Especially, since there is a trend to make biometrics the ultimate source of truth when it comes to identity verification. Once again, it's a horrible idea.
The other balls (Score:2)
Eyeball pictures taken with a smartphone, sure, that's not going to work very well. There are, however, some other balls, that can easily be photographed with a smartphone - a quick online search reveals many such examples. And as many people are already willing to take pictures of said balls to send them to random people online, there is definitely a market for NFTs of those!
Crypto? Wasn't that Superman's dog? (Score:2)
Comparing your company to Uber (Score:3)
Re: Comparing your company to Uber (Score:1)
Why does that company still exist? (Score:2)
The company has grown from 10 employees to 100 in the last year, Blania said, and it's still experimenting as it hones its operations. "You're still talking to a Series A company, not an Uber," he said. "Things are not perfect."
Why does that company still exist? What is their business model? What do they pay those salaries with?
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Selling those images to the highere bidder, of course. Like every sefl-respecting company that has some personal information of its clients.
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The answer is simple. Volume. [youtube.com]
Fuck you and your eyeball-scanning (Score:3)
The future's so bright.. (Score:1)
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Fundamental Reason This Is A Stupid Scheme (Score:3)
Setting aside the inherent problems with cryptocurrencies - this scheme could not work as the "eyeball dataset" would not do what it is supposed to do - uniquely and reliably identify people.
It is one thing to establish biometric identity under controlled conditions, after reliably establishing identity before conducting the scan, it is quite another to have people sending you scans claiming it is them. It could be anybody. It could even be a fake eyeball, or retina altering contacts (both are available now). If this scam, err, scheme, depended on reliable identity then it would be trivially easy to defraud.
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+ 1
(I haven't had mod points for months)
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And never mind people who get eye surgery or injuries.
False (Score:3)
Only developing countries? They might want to see how many peple in developed countries don't use a "smart" phone. As difficult as it may be to believer, especially on here, not everyone wants to be tracked every second of every day or endlessly harassed when all they want to do is make a phone call.
Eyeballs? (Score:2)
So all your pension money is gone when you get glaucoma.
Weirdly, I think I'd sooner trust the GOVERNMENT. (Score:2)
Where's Bad Analogy Guy when you need him? (Score:2)
Huh. That's not an analogy I would make.
If they scan my eyeball... (Score:2)
... the next step is that I will file a criminal complaint under the GDPR. They can under no circumstances get any biometric marker for me legally.
Holy shit, who's dumb enough to fall for this (Score:2)