Sam Altman’s Worldcoin project poses a privacy threat due to its retina scanning feature, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin believes.
Despite the fact that the system stores only hashed versions of biometric data and uses ZK-SNARK as well as other encryption methods, there is a real risk of information leakage, Buterin noted.
“If someone scans your iris, they can check it against a database to determine if you have a World ID. This system could potentially give more information about the user,” he added.
Another problem the developer cited was the availability of the technology for Orb scanning. In his opinion, the production of the devices needs to be greatly expanded, otherwise there is a risk of an imbalance in favour of simple, and therefore more vulnerable, methods of identity verification.
Worldcoin’s main product, the World ID protocol, is based on zero-disclosure evidence. It provides a mobile tool that allows people to authenticate themselves without sacrificing anonymity. In addition to biometrics, a phone number can be used to confirm identity.
Buterin highlighted centralisation as the third risk. According to him, the integrity of Orb’s design cannot be verified, leaving the possibility of backdoors for its creators.
“To Worldcoin’s credit, they have made a commitment to decentralisation over time,” the Ethereum creator stressed.”
He also highlighted the problem of the security of the users’ own mobile devices. If a phone with a World ID is hacked, there is a possibility of “fake people” appearing and using such profiles for malicious purposes.
Nevertheless, Buterin called the concept of Sam Altman’s project “really valuable.” In his opinion, the world needs such confidential identification applications. However, he noted that so far “there is no ideal form of identity verification.”
The programmer suggested combining several existing approaches based on social graphs, general-purpose and special-purpose hardware biometric technologies.
Buterin added that such a solution could provide a decentralised, scalable and privacy-conscious system, protected from fake identities.
As a reminder, on 24 July, Worldcoin announced the official launch and release of the WLD native token. The listing of the new coin has already been supported by crypto exchanges Binance, Bybit and OKX.