Worldcoin’s Sam Altman & Alex Blania on Crypto's Most Ambitious Project

Disclaimer: This episode was recorded on May 14th, 2023

David is joined by Worldcoin Co-Founders, Alex Blania and Sam Altman. Alex is Worldcoin’s CEO and Sam is CEO of OpenAI. Both Co-founded Worldcoin in 2020.

Worldcoin is one of the most ambitious crypto projects in the space. It’s Worldcoin’s philosophy that the best way to produce unique verifiable humanness is through human biometrics that map to our unique DNA. This is the most robust way to achieve sybil resistance. That is why Worldcoin created its silver Orb that scans user's eyeballs.

Why scan the eye? Is it safe? How is data stored? What’s Worldcoin’s crypto token distribution plan? All of these questions and much more answered in the episode.

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✨DEBRIEF | Unpacking the episode:

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TIMESTAMPS

0:00 Intro
6:15 Inception of Worldcoin Idea
8:35 How Sam & Alex Met
10:57 Why Scan Eyes
16:35 The Technology Behind the Orb
21:40 Worldcoin & Privacy
25:05 How Worldcoin Data Flows
28:35 Why Worldcoin is Needed
33:02 Proof of Personhood & Crypto
35:05 Worldcoin’s Distribution Plan
36:49 Worldcoin’s Complexity & Pressure
39:25 Sam’s Involvement with Worldcoin
39:47 Worldcoin & Optimism
42:00 Orb Operations
48:10 Worldcoin Roadmap
49:25 The Ups & Downs of Worldcoin
53:10 Reflecting on Worldcoin’s Critiques
56:10 What Does Worldcoin Need the Most?
56:50 Where Sam Stands on AI Alignment
59:20 Closing & Disclosures

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RESOURCES

Worldcoin Privacy Deep Dive

Worldcoin

Alex Blania

Sam Altman

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Not financial or tax advice. This channel is strictly educational and is not investment advice or a solicitation to buy or sell any assets or to make any financial decisions. This video is not tax advice. Talk to your accountant. Do your own research.

Disclosure. From time-to-time I may add links in this newsletter to products I use. I may receive commission if you make a purchase through one of these links. Additionally, the Bankless writers hold crypto assets. See our investment disclosures here:

[handlemonium]

This could either be one of the most important and pivotal steps forward in crypto and economics or such a big technosocial failure that it plunges us into a new exponentially dystopian dark age where humanity at large is under the thumb of AGIs, ultramegacorps, and the worst of bad actors.

[aronestrada-gohk]

What’s next for Bankless? Interview with Klaus Schwab to hear his side of the story?

[realElius]

How do these guys talk so much yet say so little.

[naba]

Open source? Yeah right, didn't openai start off as open source?

[elysiumboats]

I legit can’t tell what’s a hollow shill and what’s legit content anymore from Bankless.

Sad to see.

[DUES_EX]

When something is free YOU are the product

[goednieuwskrantje-nl]

You basically asked 2 times about the iris scanning. And instead of answering you, he basically told you exactly nothing with a couple of dozen words. To my knowledge that can mean 1 of 2 things: He doesn't want to tell you because basically it's a bad story and/or it's opening a can of worms and exposes faults eventually. 2 He is kind of a maniac and enjoys staying as obscure as possible to try to get attention that way. - I don't like people who put words like open source into their mouths and all kinds of other nice words, but when you ask them to explain something they refuse.

[sireric]

Congratulations, bank roll now more important than values

[Rawsavon]

When you see people selling out in real time...

Between this, the Ledger partnership, and the recent episodes pumping their own investments (David stated he guided them through the interview), it's like watching a slow moving values compromise car crash

[thomasnoh]

Trusting a rich Sam to have only altruistic motives? Sounds familiar.

[ReubenBarkataki]

Sam is not exactly an ambassador for trust

[JD-jlyy]

I knew cryptobros weren't always the most altruistic-minded people, but I didn't expect people in the comments to have this much trouble imagining the possibility that they're doing this project because THE WORLD GENUINELY NEEDS THIS IN A POST-AGI WORLD.

Thank you Bankless for cutting through the noise and giving AI safety concerns from various perspectives a platform!

[DylanSchwartz]

Might be cool tech. But the leaders clearly have a huge trust deficit. for a coin that’s a problem you can’t overcome.

[amirhabibzadeh]

Worldcoin's ambition is to establish WORLD ID. However, several questions arise: 1) How will this system accommodate individuals who lack internet access and smartphones? 2) How will it cater to those with severe eye damage, rendering them unable to use their eyeballs?

[MrNH]

"We want you to be bankless"

10 seconds later

"Hey give this company your biometric data"

Wtf

[wantstocomment]

"Crypto's Most Ambitious Project" - Bankless
(casually peeing on all builders while simping for the sillicon valley rich) (burning through that big bag of community credit)

[arfarf]

7:00 "...do something to redistribute wealth" What a bunch of baloney!

[androsd]

I can’t believe you are giving voice to these kinds of projects.

[peter]

Glad I waited 22 minutes for David to finally summarize what Worldcoin even is "to produce 'human-ness'" -> thanks

[jmcpharison]

Worldcoin is for everyone as long as you live in San Francisco or NYC