Coinspeaker
Worldcoin Project Seeks $100M in Funding as It Plans Mainstream Launch
The Worldcoin project is looking at raising the sum of $100 million in funding as it prepares to expand its reach with the launch of its own blockchain protocol in the next couple of weeks. According to a report by the Financial Times, the Worldcoin project will use the funding to bolster the development of its iris scanning technology.
Per people familiar with the funding plans, the group of investors being courted includes old and new backers, and the funding plans have proven quite historic for the industry thus far. With the rate of the implosion of most legacy crypto platforms over the past year, that investors are even keen on the Worldcoin project is not just a win for Sam Altman, the co-founder, but for everyone that has invested their time and energy into the protocol since its inception.
The Worldcoin project was first introduced in 2019 as the brain work of Alex Blania, Max Novendstern, and Sam Altman, the co-founder, and CEO of OpenAI, the startup in charge of the ChatGPT application. The design and focus of Worldcoin were dual-faced and it includes the plans to stump some of the complications that Artificial Intelligence (AI) has introduced into the world.
These two approaches include the tool to differentiate between humans and AI or bots as well as providing a universal basic income that can help in cushioning the impact of job losses as a result of the aggressive integration of AI.
Worldcoin will be looking at its previous investors including Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) crypto fund and Khosla Ventures and Reid Hoffman, the founder of LinkedIn. Notably, FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried also participated in earlier Worldcoin rounds but his current legal woes and financial status following the implosion and bankruptcy of FTX have made him a no-option in this current Worldcoin funding push.
The Worldcoin Project Model
The Worldcoin project is designed to serve primarily as an identification system through the scanning of human iris. The scanning of people’s eyes gives guaranteed access to use the Worldcoin digital currency.
The project has been operating in Beta since but there are plans to launch the blockchain underpinning the system and start recording transactions in the next 6 weeks. The company raised $100 million in funding last year as reported by The Information. The funding at the time raised the project’s valuation to $3 billion and this funding is billed to expand its value.
The protocol has gained both accolades and criticism for its innovation in recent times. In its defense, Worldcoin said its scanning orb is safe to use and will not hurt the user’s eye. In addition, the protocol allayed fears associated with the privacy of user data as it said no such data will be stored by the orb.
Worldcoin Project Seeks $100M in Funding as It Plans Mainstream Launch
