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Why would Worldcoin beta-test in Kenya vs SV if not in an attempt to fly under the radar of scrutiny – whether that's market scrutiny from the SEC/etc or privac

Why would Worldcoin beta-test in Kenya vs SV if not in an attempt to fly under the radar of scrutiny – whether that's market scrutiny from the SEC/etc or privacy scrutiny under GDPR and other legislation well understood by SV lawyers. Good on Kenya for holding Worldcoin to account. It'll be interesting to see what they do as they enter the "and find out" phase.

frozenport 3y ago
Also a bribe. I could imagine the poor would be more willing to waste their time getting their eyes scanned.
Alex3917 3y ago
> Why would Worldcoin beta-test in Kenya vs SV if not in an attempt to fly under the radar of scrutiny Iris scanning is already widely used in the U.S. and hasn't received much scrutiny. It's in the news all the time, e.g. with the owners of Madison Square Garden using it to keep their political enemies from going to concerts. You probably use it every time you get on an airplane already. Even LinkedIn uses CLEAR to power their verified profiles.
- gowld 3y ago
  My iris is scanned on an airplane? If so, it's not being disclosed to me.
  - tristor 3y ago
    They're probably referring to the optional facial recognition based boarding systems that many airports in the US are rolling out, primarily for international flights. It uses facial recognition to match you to your passport photo based on the documents verified during check-in, to ensure the person boarding the flight is the same person who checked-in when their documents were manually verified and recorded in the computer system. You can still hand your passport and boarding pass to the gate agent, it's not required to do facial recognition boarding if you don't want to, and at any rate it's not doing an iris scan, it's using a standard facial dotmap to match to a photo. It's not even doing 3D mapping, because it's source material is a standard passport photo.
    - 93po 3y ago
      Last time I flew into the US, if I remember correctly, I was required to submit to a facial scan to through customs. I am American.
      - tristor 3y ago
        You are not. There are three different programs by which you can accelerate entry/re-entry to the US and all three rely on facial recognition. All are optional. There is no facial recognition in the normal re-entry line (and all these processes are before customs as part of border control). Foreigner entry may now require facial recognition, I’m a US citizen so don’t experience the process foreigners go through.
        93po 3y ago
        Fair - I don't have the best memory. Thanks!
- rgrieselhuber 3y ago
  > You probably use it every time you get on an airplane already. False. More importantly, however, this is an example of the "you're already doing it so it's not a big deal" fallacy.
  - Alex3917 3y ago
    > More importantly, however, this is an example of the "you're already doing it so it's not a big deal" fallacy I'm not saying it's not a big deal, I'm saying it hasn't gotten much scrutiny, at least relative to comparable innovations in the past. E.g. when airports introduced body scanners, Jeffrey Rosen wrote an entire book about this called The Naked Crowd. Where's the equivalent scrutiny for iris scanners?
    - rgrieselhuber 3y ago
      Good question. Probably because they aren’t as widely deployed (yet) but there should be just as much and more scrutiny on these as well. They also seem pointless given ambient facial / gait / body morphology recognition (which I am also against).
gowld 3y ago
Kenya is a reasonable choice to launch a project like this. Among African nations, Kenya is very connected to USA and UBI. Altman already had OpenAI work in Kenya. It has both a stable government/economy and also high poverty and rural population. It has ~5% of Africa's population, so if you just picked a random place with a lot of people to operate, it's unsurprising to land in Kenya. https://www.givedirectly.org https://www.givedirectly.org started there.
- danpalmer 3y ago
  OpenAI work there because labour is really cheap. I don't think this is at all about UBI, if anything "competing" with Give Directly (who are doing truly excellent) would require more work and justification of Worldcoin's approach. I do suspect the real reason is much more exploitative.
  - 93po 3y ago
    There is a lot of fraud with current methods of charity in developing countries. Worldcoin is working to address that.
    - unboxingelf 3y ago
      why are you shilling worldcoin on this website?
      - 93po 3y ago
        why are you baselessly attacking worldcoin on this website?
- pessimizer 3y ago
  Extreme wealth distributions also indicate a tiny, extremely wealthy elite who, from their multi-million pound London flats, are happy to sell everything about their home countries to anyone who will pay.
jsunderland323 3y ago
I think most of SV is pretty crypto disillusioned at this point. It feels as though the only people into it in SV in 2023 are the people shilling it, which are not that profitable of a cohort after all.
neilk 3y ago
Worldcoin specifically excludes US citizens from holding the token, presumably to escape some legal or regulatory issues. https://blockworks.co/news/worldcoin-not-in-us# https://blockworks.co/news/worldcoin-not-in-us#
- 93po 3y ago
  They're not escaping, it's just poorly defined in the US. So they're waiting for clarification.
gnopgnip 3y ago
There was a worldcoin scanner/orb in SF a week ago, and there is one in Mountain View now.

frozenport 3y ago

Also a bribe. I could imagine the poor would be more willing to waste their time getting their eyes scanned.

Alex3917 3y ago

> Why would Worldcoin beta-test in Kenya vs SV if not in an attempt to fly under the radar of scrutiny Iris scanning is already widely used in the U.S. and hasn't received much scrutiny. It's in the news all the time, e.g. with the owners of Madison Square Garden using it to keep their political enemies from going to concerts. You probably use it every time you get on an airplane already. Even LinkedIn uses CLEAR to power their verified profiles.

gowld 3y ago
My iris is scanned on an airplane? If so, it's not being disclosed to me.
- tristor 3y ago
  They're probably referring to the optional facial recognition based boarding systems that many airports in the US are rolling out, primarily for international flights. It uses facial recognition to match you to your passport photo based on the documents verified during check-in, to ensure the person boarding the flight is the same person who checked-in when their documents were manually verified and recorded in the computer system. You can still hand your passport and boarding pass to the gate agent, it's not required to do facial recognition boarding if you don't want to, and at any rate it's not doing an iris scan, it's using a standard facial dotmap to match to a photo. It's not even doing 3D mapping, because it's source material is a standard passport photo.
  - 93po 3y ago
    Last time I flew into the US, if I remember correctly, I was required to submit to a facial scan to through customs. I am American.
    - tristor 3y ago
      You are not. There are three different programs by which you can accelerate entry/re-entry to the US and all three rely on facial recognition. All are optional. There is no facial recognition in the normal re-entry line (and all these processes are before customs as part of border control). Foreigner entry may now require facial recognition, I’m a US citizen so don’t experience the process foreigners go through.
      - 93po 3y ago
        Fair - I don't have the best memory. Thanks!
rgrieselhuber 3y ago
> You probably use it every time you get on an airplane already. False. More importantly, however, this is an example of the "you're already doing it so it's not a big deal" fallacy.
- Alex3917 3y ago
  > More importantly, however, this is an example of the "you're already doing it so it's not a big deal" fallacy I'm not saying it's not a big deal, I'm saying it hasn't gotten much scrutiny, at least relative to comparable innovations in the past. E.g. when airports introduced body scanners, Jeffrey Rosen wrote an entire book about this called The Naked Crowd. Where's the equivalent scrutiny for iris scanners?
  - rgrieselhuber 3y ago
    Good question. Probably because they aren’t as widely deployed (yet) but there should be just as much and more scrutiny on these as well. They also seem pointless given ambient facial / gait / body morphology recognition (which I am also against).

gowld 3y ago

Kenya is a reasonable choice to launch a project like this. Among African nations, Kenya is very connected to USA and UBI. Altman already had OpenAI work in Kenya. It has both a stable government/economy and also high poverty and rural population. It has ~5% of Africa's population, so if you just picked a random place with a lot of people to operate, it's unsurprising to land in Kenya. https://www.givedirectly.org https://www.givedirectly.org started there.

danpalmer 3y ago
OpenAI work there because labour is really cheap. I don't think this is at all about UBI, if anything "competing" with Give Directly (who are doing truly excellent) would require more work and justification of Worldcoin's approach. I do suspect the real reason is much more exploitative.
- 93po 3y ago
  There is a lot of fraud with current methods of charity in developing countries. Worldcoin is working to address that.
  - unboxingelf 3y ago
    why are you shilling worldcoin on this website?
    - 93po 3y ago
      why are you baselessly attacking worldcoin on this website?
pessimizer 3y ago
Extreme wealth distributions also indicate a tiny, extremely wealthy elite who, from their multi-million pound London flats, are happy to sell everything about their home countries to anyone who will pay.

jsunderland323 3y ago

I think most of SV is pretty crypto disillusioned at this point. It feels as though the only people into it in SV in 2023 are the people shilling it, which are not that profitable of a cohort after all.

neilk 3y ago

Worldcoin specifically excludes US citizens from holding the token, presumably to escape some legal or regulatory issues. https://blockworks.co/news/worldcoin-not-in-us# https://blockworks.co/news/worldcoin-not-in-us#

93po 3y ago
They're not escaping, it's just poorly defined in the US. So they're waiting for clarification.

gnopgnip 3y ago

There was a worldcoin scanner/orb in SF a week ago, and there is one in Mountain View now.