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Sam Altman's Worldcoin suffers major blow as Spain halts the tech giant's eye-scanning crypto initiative
Worldcoin, a global cryptocurrency project that uses eye-scanning by Sam Altman, has encountered another obstacle, as Spain has issued a directive to cease its activities. Worldcoin's operations include scanning a user's eye and gathering their biometric information, a practice many countries consider to be highly risky.
The cryptocurrency venture of Sam Altman, Worldcoin, experienced a significant hurdle earlier this week. Spain made moves to obstruct the eye-scanning digital currency due to concerns about the extensive amount of data it could potentially gather.
Sam Altman's digital currency project has been involved in multiple controversies globally, because of its intention to collect user's personal information through an eye-scanning gadget referred to as the "orb."
The Spanish privacy watchdog, AEPD, has directed Worldcoin to halt the gathering of personal data in the country instantly and to refrain from utilizing any information it has previously collected.
It is anticipated that the AEPD will soon declare this "preventative step". Additionally, Worldcoin will be given a 72-hour period to show adherence to the directive, according to a report by The Financial Times.
In the previous year, the AEPD expressed worry about the participation of underage individuals in the technology, leading Worldcoin to establish new age-check methods. Worldcoin, which Altman started in 2019, encourages people worldwide by offering its own digital currency tokens in return for agreeing to have their eyes scanned by the orb.
These scans are used for identification purposes, with the goal of creating a dependable way to differentiate between humans and machines, especially as progress in artificial intelligence persists.
The Spanish authority's ruling is another blow for Altman and his Worldcoin co-founders Max Novendstern and Alex Blania, who have encountered difficulties globally. Last summer, the startup, with bases in San Francisco and Berlin, chose not to introduce its crypto tokens in the United States due to the country's harsh clampdown on the digital assets industry.
Worldcoin's digital currency is still not accessible in some of the largest cryptocurrency markets globally, such as China and India. Moreover, some nations, including Kenya, demanded the venture to halt its activities the previous year.
Furthermore, the UK's Data Protection Agency has declared its plan to probe into Worldcoin. Various legal territories have raised doubts about the practicality of the Worldcoin token. The recent clampdown in Spain particularly focuses on the startup's main goal to create a way to confirm the "personhood" of customers. Altman considers this a vital task, especially in a world where differentiating advanced AI from humans presents obstacles.
As scrutiny increases, Altman has indicated he is open to the idea of Worldcoin operating without its own cryptocurrency. Sources in the know say that Worldcoin has gathered 4 million users and around $250 million in funding from high-profile investors. These investors include venture capital companies like Andreessen Horowitz and Khosla Ventures. Internet businessman Reid Hoffman, and Sam Bankman-Fried, before his FTX business failed, also invested.
The project's exposure has ignited media curiosity and resulted in several customer grievances in Spain, especially as lines began to form at Worldcoin booths in malls that offered cryptocurrency in return for eye scans.
In January, the Basque country's data protection agency issued a caution about the eye-scanning technology used by Worldcoin in a Bilbao shopping center. The agency stated that this technology is subject to biometric data protection laws and requires a risk evaluation.
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