Worldcoin userbase nears 4 million amid global privacy probes News ▸ South Korea ▸ Worldcoin ▸ Tokens
Worldcoin userbase nears 4 million amid global privacy probes
South Korean authorities have threatened regulatory action on Worldcoin if it is in violation of local privacy laws.
2 min read
Updated: Mar. 6, 2024 at 3:27 pm UTC
Cover art/illustration via CryptoSlate. Image includes combined content which may include AI-generated content.
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.
Mentioned in this article
Author 
Oluwapelumi Adejumo
Oluwapelumi values Bitcoin's potential. He imparts insights on a range of topics like DeFi, hacks, mining and culture, underlining transformative power.
Editor Editor 
Liam 'Akiba' Wright
Also known as "Akiba," Liam is a reporter, editor and podcast producer at CryptoSlate. He believes that decentralized technology has the potential to make widespread positive change.
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In this article
Worldcoin’s mission is to build the world’s largest identity and financial network to serve as a public utility, giving ownership to everyone.
Worldcoin
Worldcoin, co-founded by Alex Blania and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, seeks to provide its users with a verified digital identity, as well as a cryptocurrency token (WLD) and a crypto wallet software.
OpenAI
OpenAI is an AI research and deployment company committed to ensuring that general-purpose artificial intelligence helps all of humanity.
Reddit is a social news aggregation, conversation, and content-rating website based in the United States.
Sam Altman is the CEO of OpenAI, an AI research and deployment company since 2019.
