OpenAI to Secure $100M Investment in Worldcoin Crypto

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is the final stages of negotiating an agreement to secure $100 million of funding for Worldcoin, a project created to distinguish humans from artificial intelligence and to launch a collectively owned cryptocurrency, Cointelegraph wrote, citing a Financial Times report.

According to FT, the funds will be sourced from “existing and new investors.”

Sizable funding by all accounts

According to insiders, the potential new funding is “sizeable” considering the prolonged crypto bear market. Few crypto projects have been able to obtain this amount of investment in recent times.

However, this is not new for Worldcoin. Shortly after it was founded, it obtained Series A funding in a round led by a16z. Among the other investors were Coinbase Ventures, Digital Currency Group, and LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman.

The Information wrote in March last year that the company was raising $100 million via a private token sale, citing two insiders.

Worldcoin was founded by Sam Altman, Alex Blania, Sam Altman and Max Novendstern. Work on the project started around three years ago. It is preparing to launch a blockchain protocol soon.

Gas-free wallet for humans launched last week

Worldcoin announced a gas-free crypto wallet for verified humans last week. It’s called “World App” and is compatible with Android and iOS. Currently, it runs on the Polygon blockchain and lets users transfer and hold the stablecoins USD Coin and Dai as well as ether, Worldcoin, and Wrapped Bitcoin.

To sign up for the gas-free wallet, the user provides an iris scan or phone number and registers for a World ID. Worldcoin does not hold personal data. It verifies that the user is not a bot via zero-knowledge proof, but does not reveal the data used for the verification.

You can use the wallet without World ID, but then the transactions will not be free.