Spain adopts Worldcoin’s ID protocol as the company boasts ambitious plans

Spain is now the largest and fastest-growing market in Europe for Worldcoin’s World ID proof-of-personhood protocol, according to the company.

World ID uses iris biometrics as part of a digital identity and a wallet for cryptocurrency transfers. Users sign up via Worldcoin’s Orb iris scanners. Subscribers receive small sums paid in Worldcoin tokens in exchange for their data.

Since World ID launched in Madrid year ago, according to Worldcoin, 150,000 people in Spain have signed up. Reportedly, 20,000 people register every month.

Spain’s largest city, Barcelona, will be home to multiple Orbs.

Though Spain may be in the lead right now, Worldcoin expanded into Germany, Europe’s largest economy, in June.

Worldcoin also has a foothold in Portugal. As of February, 120,000 people had enrolled for WorldCoin in Portugal, a nation with 10.3 million residents. About 500 enrollments take place every day.  

According to Worldcoin, it has collected 2 million biometric credentials so far, with 40,000 new registrations last week.

In an interview with crypto trade publication Coindesk, Alex Blania, CEO of Worldcoin, said he thinks a widely deployed digital identity scheme like Worldcoin’s is inevitable.

“Something like World ID will eventually exist, meaning that you will need to verify [that you are human] on the internet, whether you like it or not,” said Blania.

“I think that’s certainly going to happen with the progress in AI.”

He said he believes the transition could occur in the next couple years.

It will be helped along by the increasingly outdated verification methods get fooled. Captchas, for instance, “will get quite challenged” as AI] improves, Blania said.

“You fundamentally need to bridge to the physical world, and measure what it means to be a human.” The Orb can be one such bridge.

Bania also threw shade at many of the government digital identity schemes.

He said that they “might work well in the United States. They might work well in Europe, but much of the world does not have an actual verifiable digital identity.”

Article Topics

biometrics  |  digital ID  |  iris biometrics  |  proof of personhood  |  Spain  |  World