Worldcoin struggles to find new users willing to scan iris for crypto

The controversial crypto project Worldcoin was launched for the public on July 24, making way for customers to scan their iris at designated locations in 20 countries and receive 25 Worlcoins (WLD) the native token of the project. 

The project debuted on the back of 2 million pre-signups but the interest seems to have faded after the actual launch. On that first day, users seemed keen, with Hong Kong seeing the highest number of signups.  The city offered three designated spots called Orbs, where users; irises are scanned and they’re offered a “world ID.”

According to a report published by South China Morning Post, the three designated locations in Hong Kong each saw about 200 signups on the first day, making it the highest number of signups across the 20 countries included in the launch.

Heatherm Huang, one of the Orb operators in the city said that the total number of sign-ups in Hong Kong on the first day accounted for nearly half of the total amount Worldcoin saw across all of its new markets.

Based on the data shared by the Orb operator, Hong Kong accounted for nearly 600 signups (200 signups per Orb location). Thus, with 600 sign-ups being nearly half of all the new registration across 20 countries, the total number of estimated signups across all markets comes to about 1000.

Cointelegraph reached out to Worldcoin to confirm the precise number of signups after the launch of the project, but has not yet received a response.

Related: Worldcoin confirms it is the cause of mysterious Safe deployments

The stark contrast in the number of sign-ups before and after the launch suggests a lack of enthusiasm. However, the early on-boards also proved controversial as one MIT report suggested that the developers behind the project attracted the first million using various deceptions, cash handouts and more, especially in developing countries where data laws are not notably strong.

The project has drawn scrutiny from many well-known names in the crypto community, including Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin and Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey. In its defence, the project has maintained that it doesn’t collect any personal information and can delete the biometric data upon requests from users.

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