Sam Altman's Worldcoin Under Investigation In Hong Kong — WLD Down 9%: 'Dystopian Nightmare,' Says Trader

Worldcoin WLD/USD dropped 9% on Wednesday amid data privacy concerns on its Orbs, leading to an investigation by Hong Kong authorities.

What Happened: Worldcoin’s six premises have come under the scrutiny of Hong Kong’s privacy watchdog, over suspicions of allegedly breaking the law while scanning people’s irises in exchange for WLD tokens. Hong Kong's Office of the Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data accuses Worldcoin of mishandling biometric data. The investigation into these allegations has commenced.

The agency has warned the public against sharing biometric data with the company due to serious risks to personal data privacy. The Worldcoin on its website says, “As a result, it really tells us — and everyone else — nothing about you. All it does is stop you from being able to sign up again.”

OpenAI CEO and founder Sam Altman co-founded Worldcoin with Alexander Blania in July 2023. In light of the ongoing investigation, the company is withdrawing its orbs in Brazil, India and France.

Among the recent developments, Techcrunch reported last week that Worldcoin announced its plan to launch an updated Orb in the first half of 2024 which will be a more user-friendly iris-scanning experience.

Also Read: Worldcoin Blinded: Can Worldcoin Navigate Challenges Following Sam Altman's OpenAI Departure?

In the past 24 hours, Worldcoin dropped 9%, currently trading around $2.32. It is down 36% month-over-month and up 39.8% year-over-year.

Why It Matters: In a recent article on crypto and AI, Vitalik Buterin noted that Worldcoin implements security measures to prevent unauthorized access to its AI model. The system employs trusted hardware to ensure that the model only accepts inputs digitally signed by the Orb's camera, thus avoiding black-box attacks.

Crypto speculator Wazz Crypto expressed skepticism about Worldcoin in a tweet, calling it a "dystopian nightmare" and suggesting its best use case is limited to "pump and dumps" whenever Altman makes a move. Other users on X labeled the WLD coin as cursed and recommended valuing the coin at zero.

Bitcoin trader Pledditor mentioned on X that Worldcoin was launched at the peak of the AI bubble and, despite the hype since 2018, has not lived up to expectations.

Read Next: Worldcoin Blinded: Can Worldcoin Navigate Challenges Following Sam Altman's OpenAI Departure?

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