- Buterin said the main risks are privacy, availability, centralization and security.
- Buterin suggested solutions to mitigate these risks.
Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin in a blog post pointed out four potential problems with the Worldcoin project’s iris scanning identity verification system.
He highlighted the main risks are privacy, availability, centralization and security, and suggested alternative ways to mitigate these issues.
Buterin expressed fears for the privacy of the project due to iris scanning. There is a risk of misuse or leakage of identity information, he said.
“If someone else performs a scan of your iris, they can match it to a database and determine if you have a World ID, which could reveal more personal information,” the Ethereum co-founder added.
The second risk Buterin mentioned is the accessibility of the project, as you need physical access to the Worldcoin Orb to participate in it. The company stands out for its uniqueness through its use of highly sophisticated biometrics, where each user has their iris scanned using special equipment known as a “Sphere,” Buterin wrote.
He added that “if the number is insufficient, there could be an imbalance in the distribution of Worldcoin in favor of urban centers, where spheres are likely to be more accessible.”
The third risk Buterin highlighted is centralization. He pointed out that there is no way to verify the integrity of the Orb hardware device, which opens up the possibility of so-called “backdoors.”
A final thing the Ethereum co-founder fears for is the security of the system. He gives examples of risks such as phone hacking, forcing iris scans for another person, and selling or renting IDs.
Vitalik Buterin noted that there is no “perfect form of proof of identity”. However, he suggested combining three available approaches to eliminate risks as much as possible: social graph-based biometric technologies, general biometric technologies, and specialized biometric technologies that use hardware.
Today, July 24, the Worldcoin project team announced the launch of the core network and the WLD token, which later went public on several cryptocurrency exchanges. At the time of writing, it is trading at $2.58:
WLD/USD chartIt will be interesting