Crypto Black Horse WLD Breaks the Deadlock and Goes Viral, Do You Dare to Follow?

2024-03-18, 03:32

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![](https://gimg2.gateimg.com/image/article/1710732798rdzz.jpeg)
##  [TL；DR]
WLD, the world's first crypto token based on iris recognition, has recently sparked widespread attention and discussion due to its consecutive skyrocketing prices. What changes its emergence will bring to the crypto field is worth every investor's attention.

Worldcoin is a project that implements the UBI concept. It consists of three parts: World ID, Worldcoin, and World APP.

## Introduction
The new narrative hype of AI is still ongoing, and the token Worldcoin (WLD), which has been forcibly bound to the AI concept by people, has dominated the hot search for nearly a month. Even its total circulating market value once exceeded OpenAI's valuation. How was this project issued and launched, whether it can break away from MEME attributes and release true UBI value, and what risks and opportunities will it face in the future? This article will discuss together.
 
### Rising by 456% in One Month, Worldcoin Leads the AI Sector
Unconsciously, Worldcoin has risen from $2.1 in early February to around $12 in early March, recording an excess increase of 456% in just one month and becoming the hottest token in the AI sector.

As shown in the figure, the surge in Worldcoin is closely related to the dynamics of OpenAI.

On February 15 of this year, OpenAI, a company renowned for ChatGPT, showcased its latest development to the public - a video generation model called Sora. This model is eye-catching, as it can quickly generate high-definition videos up to a minute long with just a simple input of text. In the video, the characters are diverse, the scenes are complex, and the details of the characters are vivid as if they are in the real world.
![](https://gimg2.gateimg.com/image/article/17107326161.jpeg)
Source: Gate.io
 
This news quickly sparked heated discussions on social media, and OpenAI's blockchain project - Worldcoin - was also quickly ignited by this sentiment, leading to a series of upward solid trends. In just a few days, the price of Worldcoin doubled and promptly ignited the rise of the entire AI sector, while WLD continued to dominate the popular token series for nearly a month.

As of the writing date, the price of Worldcoin has slightly retreated to around $10.5, and if calculated based on a total supply of 10 billion pieces, the total market value of WLD has exceeded $105 billion, which even exceeds 25% of OpenAI's latest valuation. However, it is worth noting that the circulation rate of WLD is meager, with only 1.49% of the total amount of coins currently circulating on the market.

According to the official website of Worldcoin, over 4.2 million Orb-verified World IDs have been created in over 120 countries/regions, with over 35 million users and over 1 million active users per week.

Such a large user base and deficient token circulation naturally make the token susceptible to significant short-term speculative hype.

###  UBI's Idealization Attempt
The Worldcoin blockchain project was conceived by OpenAI founders Sam Altman and Alex Blania in 2020.

Since 2021, Worldcoin has successfully attracted investors, including a16z, DCG, Blockchain Capital, etc., through financing activities, raising over $100 million in venture capital. Worldcoin's native crypto, WLD, officially entered the market on July 24, 2023, making its debut.

The project aims to achieve a grand vision of building the largest and most equitable global digital identity and digital currency system. In short, its goal is to provide free cryptocurrency and direct economic support to every real human being on Earth.
![](https://gimg2.gateimg.com/image/article/17107326662.jpeg)
Source: worldcoin.org/
 
So, why is this project so generous and willing to distribute currency to the public for free?

This stems from Sam Altman's profound insight that with the rapid development of artificial intelligence technology, many jobs on Earth may be replaced by AI in the future. When people lose their jobs, they also lose a stable source of income. Hence, the concept of basic income (UBI) has emerged.

The Worldcoin project aims to achieve this concept by distributing its project token - WLD - to provide economic support for everyone. This token is not traditional US dollars or gold but a unique digital currency of the Worldcoin project. It will serve as a "digital identity protocol" in the era of artificial intelligence, committed to building a decentralized Proof of Humanity solution to bring tangible benefits to everyone.

The architecture of Worldcoin consists of three core components:

1. A global identity - World ID: a digital identity used to protect privacy

2. A global digital currency - Worldcoin: codenamed WLD, only available to humans

3. A wallet that carries identity ID and currency - World App: the first digital wallet compatible with this protocol

In the concept of Proof of Humanity, the rich works created by artificial intelligence are often accompanied by a large amount of junk content, so proving a person's authenticity and uniqueness becomes particularly important.

To this end, Worldcoin plans to distribute dedicated hardware called Orb worldwide, allowing people to verify their identity by scanning their iris and using specific applications. Worldcoin emphasizes its privacy protection technology and plans to achieve decentralization of protocol governance gradually.

In the operation mechanism of Worldcoin, users need to use the World App to generate private and public keys, and then go to nearby Orb devices to verify their identity through iris scanning. This verification process ensures that only real human individuals can pass, and each individual can only be verified once. Once verified successfully, the user will receive the World ID verified by Orb.
 
### Worldcoin Advances in Questioning
Many innovative products will face doubts in the early stages of being launched into the market, and some will eventually complete stress testing and head towards the vast ocean of stars. For example, are <a href="/price/bitcoin-btc" target="_blank" class="blog_inner_link">Bitcoin</a> and Worldcoin also following this path?

A comical reality is that Worldcoin itself is not a project that utilizes AI technology, and people only forcibly associate the founder of Worldcoin with OpenAI, thereby vigorously exciting the token, which is indeed in line with the FOMO characteristics of the crypto market.

Another skeptical viewpoint is that Worldcoin has greater significance, but at the technical level, it has not shown obvious innovation points.

Specifically, the WLD token is based on <a href="/price/ethereum-eth" target="_blank" class="blog_inner_link">Ethereum</a>'s ERC20 token, which collaborates with <a href="/price/optimism-op" target="_blank" class="blog_inner_link">Optimism</a> on the underlying architecture and Safe on the account. ENS and <a href="/price/uniswap-uni" target="_blank" class="blog_inner_link">Uniswap</a> are used for transfers and transactions. The only iris-scanning biometric hardware with native technology, Orb, was investigated by regulatory authorities in countries such as the UK, France, and Germany due to privacy and security issues at the beginning of the project launch. Recently, Spain, South Korea, and other regions have also begun investigating its ban.

However, Worldcoin has not stopped working on a pure iris collection and payment project, and its recent actions seem to rely on the DID market advantage to expand the ecosystem.

At the end of last year, the Worldcoin Foundation announced a community funding program called Wave0. The plan allocates $5 million in funding across three grant tracks to enable developers to focus on building adaptable technologies and more equitable systems on the Worldcoin platform.

Firstly, the community grant track allocated up to 5000 WLD funding for sponsorships, hackathons, and similar events. In addition, the project grant track aims to support large-scale projects up to 25000 WLD. Open grants will focus on the most important and ambitious projects without a specific budget, and will receive amounts based on specific circumstances. This grant will support research and development work, especially those exploring the intersection of privacy and biometrics.

In March, the Wave0 program announced its first batch of nominees, with approximately 800000 WLDs awarded to 28 projects across five continents, covering innovative solutions around World ID applications, World ID protocols, user agents, PoP new hardware, and more. These include Votexx, Zanzibar, NEBRA, Ribbon Protocol, xx Network, Rarimo, Wonderland, TheVoice, Wallfacer, Clade Club, Merkle Tree Explorer, RewardMe, and more IDMaster, etc.
![](https://gimg2.gateimg.com/image/article/17107327173.jpeg)
Source: Worldcoin.org
 
In the wave of artificial intelligence, Worldcoin holds a grand vision and sees World ID as a key medium for achieving Universal Basic Income (UBI) for all, which is highly anticipated. However, at the same time, potential risks and challenges, such as iris scanning and collecting and storing biometric data, have also raised concerns.

Although Worldcoin still faces multiple challenges in the short term, its highly imaginative breakthrough potential is particularly prominent in the field of crypto applications. This potential success and token appreciation prospect has attracted the attention of top Silicon Valley venture capitalists, in addition to its founder, Altman.

"With the booming development of AI, the demand for systems that provide Proof of Humanity, as well as the demand for wealth redistribution and global governance systems, is growing."

Sam Altman is still committed to making this project more accessible to the real world, and amidst controversy and prosperity, there will still be many highlights to be seen in this project. We will also wait and see.

For investors, the value of WLD tokens will be deeply influenced by the market's recognition of the Worldcoin concept and whether the token can build practical application scenarios and a dynamic ecosystem. This consensus game will be long-term and should be reasonably evaluated when making investment decisions while maintaining a rational participation concept.

<div class="blog-details-info">
<div>Author:**Carl Y.**, Gate.io Researcher
<div>Translator:Joy Z.
<div class="info-tips">\*This article represents only the views of the researcher and does not constitute any investment suggestions.
<div>\*Gate.io reserves all rights to this article. Reposting of the article will be permitted provided Gate.io is referenced. In all cases, legal action will be taken due to copyright infringement.
</div>

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