Worldcoin userbase nears 4 million amid global privacy probes

Worldcoin’s adoption continues to grow despite the growing privacy concerns from several jurisdictions.

According to its website, registered users on its platform have reached almost 4 million in less than a year after its launch, registering more than 600,000 accounts within the past week.

Worldcoin, a crypto project co-founded by Sam Altman, is a blockchain-based initiative that allows individuals to validate their human identity through iris scanning. Upon successful verification, users receive a “World ID” credential that can be seamlessly integrated into future applications, proving they are human.

Notably, the project recently announced its integration with several prominent online platforms, including Minecraft, Reddit, Telegram, Shopify, and Mercado Libre.

These milestones reflect the notable adoption rate of the polarizing project despite the regulatory scrutiny about its data-handling practices from various regulatory authorities.

South Korea begins investigations

Earlier today, the South Korean regulatory body, the Personal Information Commission, said it initiated an investigation into Worldcoin’s practices on Feb. 29, prompted by complaints over potential violations of data protection laws.

The commission will scrutinize Worldcoin’s gathering, handling, and possible international transfer of sensitive personal data. It added that any violations of local privacy regulations will prompt immediate regulatory action.

The regulator furthered that Worldcoin was collecting facial and iris data at ten South Korean sites. Worldcoin has repeatedly highlighted that it only collects ‘hashes’ of biometric data and not the visual scans themselves.

South Korea joins a growing list of jurisdictions scrutinizing Worldcoin’s data collection practices. Regulatory bodies in Hong Kong, France, Germany, Britain, and Kenya have also taken an interest, with some issuing directives to halt user registrations.

WLD price performance

Despite these issues, the price of Worldcoin’s WLD token remains strong, largely buoyed by recent market sentiments and the positive developments surrounding the project’s sister company, OpenAI.

CryptoSlate’s data show that WLD increased 246% during the past 30 days. However, its value has slightly corrected by 1.43% to $7.88 as of press time.

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