Worldcoin: Sam Altman Launches Eyeball Scanning Crypto Coin
A cryptocurrency project described as being "dystopian" has been launched by AI entrepreneur Sam Altman.
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Worldcoin gives people digital coins in exchange for a scan of their eyeballs.
In sites around the world thousands of people queued to gaze into silver orbs on day one of the project's full launch.
The BBC visited a scanning site in London where people received free crypto tokens after going through the process.
Mr Altman, the chief executive of Open AI which built chat bot ChatGPT says he hopes the initiative will help confirm if someone is a human or a robot.
The concept of a universal basic income sees all citizens paid a set salary regardless of their means.
The first step in this crypto utopia as laid out by Worldcoin though relies on getting millions, maybe even billions, of people to scan their irises to prove they are a human.
Since testing of the scanners began two years ago, Worldcoin says more than two million people have been added to the crypto database in 33 different countries.
According to the company most sign ups have happened in Europe, India and southern Africa.
Despite the company's American foundation, the crypto coins are not being offered to US citizens due to regulatory concerns.
Now that the project has fully launched and the crypto tokens are available to claim and to trade, it's expected to grow even more popular.
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