{"id":82107,"date":"2023-07-24T16:48:28","date_gmt":"2023-07-24T13:48:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/?p=82107"},"modified":"2025-09-12T03:07:18","modified_gmt":"2025-09-12T00:07:18","slug":"vitalik-buterin-flags-main-risks-for-worldcoin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/vitalik-buterin-flags-main-risks-for-worldcoin\/","title":{"rendered":"Vitalik Buterin flags ‘main risks’ for Worldcoin"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sam Altman’s Worldcoin project poses a privacy risk due to its iris-scan feature, says<\/a> Vitalik Buterin, Ethereum co-founder.<\/p>\n

Although the system stores only hashed versions of biometric data and uses ZK-SNARKs, as well as other cryptographic methods, there is a real risk of data leakage, Buterin noted.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIf someone scans your iris, they could match it against the database to determine whether you have a World ID. Potentially this system could reveal more information about the user,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Another issue the developer highlighted is the accessibility of the Orb scanning technology. In his view, device production needs to be substantially expanded; otherwise there is a risk of a tilt toward simple, and thus more vulnerable, methods of identity verification.<\/p>\n

The flagship Worldcoin product\u2014the World ID protocol\u2014is based on zero-knowledge proofs<\/a>. It is a mobile tool that allows people to verify their identity without sacrificing anonymity. In addition to biometric data, a phone number can be used to confirm identity.<\/p>\n

As a third risk, Buterin highlighted centralisation. By his words, the integrity of Orb’s design cannot be checked, leaving room for backdoors for its creators.<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cTo Worldcoin’s credit, they have taken on a commitment<\/a> to decentralisation over time,\u201d emphasised the Ethereum founder.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

He also highlighted the security risks to users’ mobile devices themselves. If a phone with World ID is hacked, there is a possibility of \u201cfake people\u201d appearing and using such profiles for malicious purposes.<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, Buterin described the concept of Sam Altman’s project as \u201ctruly valuable.\u201d In his view, the world needs such privacy-preserving identity-verification apps. However, he noted that there is no \u201cperfect form of identity verification\u201d yet.<\/p>\n

The programmer proposed combining several existing approaches based on social graphs, and hardware biometric technologies for general- and specialized-use.<\/p>\n

Buterin added that such a solution could provide a decentralised, scalable, privacy-preserving system, safeguarded against fake personal data.<\/p>\n

On July 24, Worldcoin announced<\/a> the official launch and release of the native token WLD. The listing of the new coin has already been supported by crypto exchanges Binance, Bybit and OKX.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Worldcoin project poses a privacy risk due to the iris-scan feature, says Vitalik Buterin, Ethereum co-founder.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":82108,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"select":"1","news_style_id":"1","cryptorium_level":"","_short_excerpt_text":"","creation_source":"","_metatest_mainpost_news_update":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[200,1327],"class_list":["post-82107","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","tag-vitalik-buterin","tag-worldcoin"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"views":"15","promo_type":"1","layout_type":"1","short_excerpt":"","is_update":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82107","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=82107"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82107\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":82109,"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82107\/revisions\/82109"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/82108"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=82107"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=82107"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=82107"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}