A statement released by the organisation today states that Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, has resigned from his position and will be departing from the board. However, uncertainties persist regarding his involvement in other organisations, such as Worldcoin, the cryptocurrency venture he co-founded, as its token price declines in the news.
CoinMarketCap statistics show that the price of Worldcoin’s token, WLD, dropped by more than 13% on the day, to $1.91. When questioned about Altman’s future at Worldcoin or its intentions moving forward, Worldcoin did not react to any request for comment.
In May, headed by Blockchain Capital, Altman’s crypto project earned $115 million in a Series C round of funding. It was reported in March that Altman sits on Worldcoin’s board of directors but is not engaged in “day-to-day” operations.
According to Tiago Sada, head of product at Tools for Humanity and a core contributor to Worldcoin, Worldcoin obtains users by scanning their irises through its Orb, which then assigns users an “iris code” or “World ID” that grants users access to the projects’ application and provides them with “a digital passport.” The iris code is used to ensure that a person has not obtained a second verification to conceal their true identity.
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Challenges Faced by Worldcoin
In August, Worldcoin experienced backlash from governments, which barred the initiative from scanning any more of its citizen’s eyes (and the project flouted early cautions). Worldcoin has attracted pushback from opponents, who believe the corporation targets poor countries. The project may be considered as exploitative since it offers most participants (outside the U.S. and certain other countries) just 25 WLD tokens (now worth around $48) for joining up.
Sada justified the free token distribution by noting that most crypto and tech ventures target emerging areas since “those are the easier ones to operate in.”
Why Sam Altman was removed
The board of OpenAI “no longer has confidence in [Altman’s] ability to continue leading” the firm, according to a statement released Today on Friday. However, the announcement did not elaborate on the reasons for Altman’s resignation or his relationship with affiliated companies such as Worldcoin.
Read also: ChatGPT Plus signups suspended by OpenAI due to capacity limits
Recall
Based on a blog post posted by Newsfly earlier, the Worldcoin app has “more than doubled” the number of active users around the world to over four million. Over 2.4 million “unique humans” use Worldcoin, and as of this writing, over 59,000 new accounts have been created in the last week alone, with daily wallet transactions averaging over 59,000.
