The Kenyan National Assembly Committee that has been investigating Worldcoin operations in the country has urged the Communications Authority of Kenya (CA) to immediately close the project.
The parliamentary committee urged the National Treasury to formulate a comprehensive virtual assets regulatory framework as the investigative arms continue to probe the Worldcoin data storage.

A Kenyan parliamentary committee has called on the country’s information technology regulator, the Communications Authority of Kenya, to immediately shut down the operations of the Worldcoin (WLD) project within the country. The parliamentary recommendations on the Worldcoin project are expected to take effect until the country’s National Treasury implements a comprehensive framework for virtual assets.

This comes at a time the country’s currency is grappling with high inflation and depreciating value against major currencies including the United States dollar, the Euro, and the British Pound.

Within seven days of the adoption of this report, the Communications Authority to disable the virtual platforms of M/s Tools for Humanity Corp and M/s Tools for Humanity GmbH, Germany (Worldcoin) including blacklisting the IP addresses of related websites and to suspend their physical presence in Kenya,

The decision was a huge blow to the Worldcoin project that had anticipated to venture into one of Africa’s leading economies that has been welcoming to the cryptocurrency industry, despite the central bank not legalizing their use officially. Moreover, the parliamentary committee urged the investigative arms led by the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) and the Director of Public Prosecution to further probe the Worldcoin project and take any necessary legal actions.

Worldcoin Troubles in Kenya

In the past few weeks, the Kenyan parliament has heard from the Worldcoin team and also sampled some of the people who had their eyes scanned. Notably, some people have reported having eyesight problems after the scanning. Additionally, the project has been accused of hood-winking the scanned people, by offering them less money than promised and not showing them the proper means of liquidating the cash. Reportedly, some people are said to have received an equivalent of $14 instead of the promised $50.

The Kenyan regulators have been pushing to understand the measures put in place to protect user data that was collected by the Worldcoin project in the name of human verification. Moreover, the Kenyan law prohibits the export of personal identification data, with Worldcoin reportedly using Amazon servers to store the mined data. The Worldcoin project is said to continue with the registration of new persons despite the suspension orders.

WLD Market Outlook

The Worldcoin (WLD) price has significantly depreciated amid regulatory scrutiny in several jurisdictions. According to the latest crypto price oracles, Worldcoin (WLD) price exchanged around $1.62 on Tuesday, down approximately 4.7 percent in the past 24 hours. As a result, the Worldcoin (WLD) project had a fully diluted valuation of about $16.3 billion, mostly due to its huge reserves backed by the OpenAI creator. According to the company’s official website, the unique humans on the Worldcoin amounted to over 2.3 million from over 120 countries.

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Filed under: Bitcoin - @ October 3, 2023 6:04 pm