Worldcoin and the Intellectual Decline of Venture Capital
Yesterday, the company behind the Sam Altman-fronted Worldcoin project announced it had raised $115 million dollars in venture capital. The raise looks like an atavistic last gasp for the kind of prestige-driven, slot-machine structured Silicon Valley fundraising fostered by a decade of cheap money. Because whether on ethical or financial grounds, there seems little rational explanation for supporting the project.
To review, Worldcoin’s pitch is essentially twofold. At its core is The Orb, a device that scans the retinas of users, so they can later confirm their identity online. The Worldcoin token, in turn, is intended to be distributed as a form of “universal basic income” (UBI) and is currently being offered as an incentive for early eyeball-scan volunteers. That makes it easy to deduce that the UBI element of the project is simply window dressing for its real goal: solving the problem of digital identity. But in fact, Worldcoin’s approach to that problem is equally terrible, presenting a dazzling array of privacy risks and moral entanglements. The company’s messaging goes to great lengths to depict both a charitable project and an opportunity for immense profits.
Source
https://t.me/DeFi_Ethereum
