Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has issued serious warnings regarding Sam Altman’s digital identity project World (WLD, formerly known as Worldcoin).
While World, which has attracted attention with more than 13 million “unique people” records, continues to grow in the digital identity space, Buterin said such projects could jeopardize online anonymity.
In his paper published today, Buterin assessed the potential benefits and harms of digital identity systems that use zero-knowledge proofs (ZK), arguing that systems based on a “per-person identity” model, such as World, could threaten the privacy of internet users.
“In a per-person identity system, even wrapped in ZK, we run the risk of all your online activities being effectively mapped to a single identity,” Buterin said, noting that eliminating anonymity could have serious negative consequences in an environment of increasing digital threats.
World was developed by Tools for Humanity, a company founded by Sam Altman and Alex Blania. Users prove they are human by scanning their eyes with devices called “Orbs” and thus receive both a World ID and WLD tokens. The biometric data used in the identity creation process is protected by ZK technology.
Buterin acknowledged the privacy benefits provided by ZK technology, but noted that the system’s imposition of a single identity could be damaging in the long run. Buterin noted that similar systems have become widespread in regions such as the European Union and Taiwan, and that this trend is becoming global.
“On the surface, the proliferation of ZK-powered digital identities may appear to be a significant gain against bots and fake accounts on social media, online voting, and various platforms,” Buterin wrote, but he warned that users' freedom to manage multiple email or social media accounts could be eliminated with these systems.
The World project is making progress despite criticism from privacy advocates. World, which has launched in the U.S., is preparing to issue a Visa card and is taking steps to authenticate users in a pilot program with Tinder in Japan.
Despite these developments, Buterin proposes a more pluralistic model:
“Instead of singular identity systems wrapped in ZK, a pluralistic structure should be adopted where identities can be provided in different ways by more than one institution, platform or person.”
*This is not investment advice.
