Tech millionaire handing out free crypto cash if you let him scan your eyeballs

Over 100,000 people have been given a free cryptocurrency in exchange for scans of their eyeballs.

The new cryptocurrency, Worldcoin, is a bit like Bitcoin and uses futuristic ‘orb’ devices to scan user’s retinas.

The scans are used to generate codes which people can use to claim free digital tokens.

The plan is to give the digital currency to everyone on earth by handing out free shares of it. The creators of Worldcoin hope it can one day be used as a currency in any country, and provide people with ‘universal basic income’.

It’s a noble goal, but many people are unclear as to why the company is going around scanning people’s eyeballs in shopping centres.

Worldcoin claims that because each human retina is unique, it lets them verify that you are a real person and check whether you have claimed your free shares yet.

This is to stop people cheating the system or using the crypto for illegal transactions, as often happens with the likes of Bitcoin.

Co-founder Alex Blania insists nobody’s privacy is at risk, as once the orb has scanned your eye and created a unique code, the images are permanently deleted.

“Even if I have your iris code in one form or another, I would have no chance to find out how who you actually are,” Blania said.

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He added: ““We designed the whole system to be fundamentally privacy-preserving.”

“The iris code itself is the only thing leaving the orb. There’s no big database of biometric data.”

Long-term, the company hopes to build digital wallets where people can store their Worldcoins.

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Eventually, it could be the infrastructure for other apps to use payments on—or for governments to hand out free money.

So far, the cryptocurrency has raised more than $25 million in funding and has been valued at $1 billion dollars.

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