Is World’s biometric ID model a threat to self-sovereignty?
The post Is World’s biometric ID model a threat to self-sovereignty? appeared on BitcoinEthereumNews.com.
The crypto industry is no stranger to controversy, yet few projects have drawn more scrutiny than Sam Altman’s World, formerly known as Worldcoin. Promising to verify human uniqueness through iris scans and distribute its WLD token globally, World positions itself as a tool for financial inclusion. However, critics argue the project’s biometric methods are invasive, overly centralized, and at odds with the ethos of decentralization and digital privacy. At the heart of the critique is the claim that biometric identity systems cannot be truly decentralized when they rely on proprietary hardware, closed authentication methods, and centralized control over data pipelines. “Decentralization isn’t just a technical architecture,” Shady El Damaty, co-founder of Holonym Foundation, told Cointelegraph. “It’s a philosophy that prioritizes user control, privacy, and self-sovereignty. World’s biometric model is inherently at odds with this ethos.” El Damaty argued that despite using tools like multiparty computation (MPC) and zero-knowledge (ZK) proofs, World’s reliance on custom hardware — the Orb — and centralized code deployment undermines the decentralization it claims to champion. “This is by design to achieve their goals of uniquely identifying individual humans. This concentration of power risks creating a single point of failure and control, undermining the very promise of decentralization,” he said. When reached out for comment, a spokesperson for World pushed back against these claims. “World does not use centralized biometric infrastructure,” they said, adding that the World App is non-custodial, meaning users remain in control of their digital assets and World IDs. The project said once the Orb generates an iris code, the “iris photo will be sent as an end-to-end encrypted data bundle to your phone and will be immediately deleted from the Orb.” The iris code, they claimed, is processed with anonymizing multiparty computation so “no personal data is stored.” World’s disclosure regarding personal…
Filed under: News - @ May 25, 2025 10:25 pm