OpenAI co-founder's "world coin" was officially launched, and the price soared on the first day of trading

The Worldcoin projectThe core product is World ID., which the company calls a "digital passport" that can prove its holder is a real human, not an artificial intelligence robot. To get a "world ID," customers need to take an in-person iris scan using WorldCoin's "sphere" (a silver ball about the size of a bowling ball). Once the iris scan of the "sphere" verifies that the person is a real person, it creates a world ID.

The company behind WorldCoin is Tools for Humanity, based in San Francisco and Berlin.

The project, which has 2 million users in its testing phase, will expand its "orbing" service to 35 cities in 20 countries with its launch on Monday.As an incentive, users who register in certain countries will receive the cryptocurrency token WLD of WorldCoin.

WLD prices rose in early trading on Monday.According to the Binance website, on Binance, the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange, the highest price of WLD reached $5.29, the starting price was $0.15, and the trading volume reached $25.10 million.

Co-founder Alex Blania told reporters,

Blockchain can store world IDs in a way that protects privacy and cannot be controlled or shut down by any single entity.

Societe Generale InvestmentWorld ID is essential in the era of generative artificial intelligence chatbots like ChatGPT, which produce very human-like languageWorld ID can be used to distinguish between real people and artificial intelligence robots.

Altman said,Worldcoin could also help address the question of how generative artificial intelligence will reshape the economy.He said:

"Artificial intelligence will give people a huge incentive, which will have a huge economic impact."

One example that Altman likes is a universal basic income (UBI), a social welfare program that is usually run by the government, and everyone is eligible for funding. Since artificial intelligence "will replace more and more human jobs," Altman believesUniversal basic income helps to eliminate income inequalitySince only real people can have "World ID"When deploying UBI, it can be used to reduce fraud.

Mr. Altman said he thought a world with UBI would be a "distant future" and that he did not know which entity could issue the currency, but that the world currency laid the groundwork for it to become a reality.

"We think we need to start trying things so we can figure out what to do," he said.