Europe scrutinises Worldcoin crypto.
The cryptocurrency known as Worldcoin is already being investigated in Europe. The launch of Worldcoin on Monday comes at a time when the cryptocurrency industry is going through a rough patch as a result of the dramatic failure of FTX and other legal proceedings brought against the industry’s most influential participants.
PARIS: The Worldcoin cryptocurrency project of OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is already under investigation by European regulators for its dependence on an eye scan to authenticate a user’s identity, France’s data protection agency said Friday. This is less than a week after the project’s launch.
The introduction of Worldcoin on Monday comes at a difficult time for the cryptocurrency market as a result of FTX’s stunning collapse and numerous legal actions taken against the top participants.
It attempts to address one of the major issues the cryptocurrency sector is currently facing: a level of anonymity that is so great that it leaves it open to scams and spam bots, which AI threatens to make exponentially worse.
However, Worldcoin’s acquisition of biometric information might violate Europe’s stringent data privacy laws.
France’s CNIL data authority informed AFP that “Worldcoin has started to collect data in France… which seems questionable as does the conservation of biometric data.”
After performing a first study, CNIL declared that it had selected its Bavarian equivalent as the leading organisation in Europe to look into Worldcoin and that it supports their inquiry.
In fact, Worldcoin launched in June in Alex Blania’s native Germany, where he is a co-founder.
When approached by AFP on Friday, the Bavarian data protection agency declined to respond right away.
According to its website, Worldcoin intends to establish the “world’s largest identity and financial public network” with its cryptocurrency and identification system.
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