2024-04-14 15:43:05
A few dollars in the fundus. In a country rocked by inflation, to which is added a new austerity policy, tens of thousands of Argentines are providing their irises for biometric scanning of the cryptocurrency “Worldcoin”, reports AFP.
In a small shopping center in Buenos Aires, Juan Sosa freezes for a few seconds in front of a silver sphere with a built-in camera that looks like something out of an old sci-fi movie. A circle of light passes and he receives tokens in his digital wallet that are equal to $80.
“I do it because I don’t have a peso anymore. For nothing else,” mutters the 64-year-old martial arts teacher. “I would not like to do it, but at my age no one gives me a job anymore, and I need money,” he told the agency.
AFP journalists met many with Juan Sosa’s profile in queues outside Worldcoin stands in the capital, where young operators scan their irises with a biometric machine.
For “Worldcoin” it is not about a “transaction” – iris for money, but about the first steps towards building “the largest financial and identification network in the world that preserves the confidentiality of personal data”.
Iris is a kind of digital passport that works thanks to the blockchain and allows users to prove their identity online without sharing personal data. In the hope of universal income expressed in cryptocurrency.
Worldcoin’s iris-based verification system, launched in July 2023 by OpenAI chief Sam Altman, is being scrutinized by regulators in several countries concerned about privacy concerns .
In March, Spain and then Portugal suspended Worldcoin operations pending an investigation.
In today’s Argentina, however, with inflation of 211 percent in 2023 and austerity under ultra-liberal Javier Millay in 2024, Worldcoin is a hit. Since the beginning of the year, 500,000 people, or 15 percent of the 3 million people worldwide who have “provided” their iris, have been Argentine, according to January data from the company.
“For a lot of people, things are going really bad, they can’t get by on one salary anymore, that’s why they do things like this,” said Miriam Marrero, a 42-year-old cashier, pointing to the orb that will scan her iris. She also does it for money, in this case, to lend a hand to a friend.
The company assures that “security and privacy are priorities and the orb has “robust security features” to prevent theft, counterfeiting or piracy.
Thiago Sada, product manager at Tools for Humanity, the California-based holding company behind Worldcoin, emphasized that there is an “open dialogue with regulatory authorities in each country, both on the financial side and on privacy.”
Ongoing investigations aimed at verifying whether commitments are being fulfilled are “absolutely normal”, he said. Like the one conducted by the Argentine Agency for Transparency and Data Protection (AAIP).
The fact remains that a biometric indicator like the iris, unique to each person, is “ultra sensitive”, insists Natalia Suaso, analyst and digital consultant at Salta Agencia.
“I don’t think people don’t understand the implications, but a lot of them do it for money,” in a country where the minimum wage is about $220. “There’s also an idea of magic generated by the sphere, a curiosity,” she added.
For the “Portecos” (“port people”, as the citizens of Buenos Aires are known – ed.), who have immortalized their iris, a number of questions remain: “The iris is something one of a kind, I don’t know who holds this data and it worries me a little,” said Ulises Herrera, a 20-year-old student. Nor would he do so if there were no urgent financial need.
However, many struggling Argentines do not attach much importance to this aspect. “I’ve been giving my personal data to a number of companies for years. At least now they’re giving me money.” mocks Federico Mastronardi, a 33-year-old musician without a penny in his pocket, writes BTA.