Worldcoin is an identity verification protocol using biometric data scanning. Those who voluntarily undergo an iris scan are periodically given a “basic income” that is paid in the WLD token. While most of these tokens go to those who verified their identity on the protocol, a portion is earmarked for members of the development team and early investors. These tokens have not yet been released. Today, July 16, the organization Worldcoin announced a change regarding this portion of WLD tokens:
«Starting July 24th, 2024, WLD tokens allocated to Tools for Humanity (TFH) investors and team members, the first contributors to the Worldcoin project, are scheduled to begin unlocking daily in a linear fashion. This week, TFH informed the Worldcoin Foundation that, in a move aligned with the long-term nature of Worldcoin’s mission, the unlock schedule for the 80% of WLD held by TFH team members and investors is being extended from 3 to 5 years.» Worldcoin Development Team
What was announced implies that The release of coins to the market will take place more slowly than initially planned. Such action has a positive impact on WLD as its inflation rate will be lower. Worldcoin clarifies in a blog post that “originally the WLD tokens of these early contributors were planned to be subject to a three-year lock-up schedule. Specifically, no transfers were possible for one year after the launch of the Worldcoin protocol, which took place on July 24, 2023, and then the tokens would be unlocked daily and linearly over the following two years.” This scheme implied that almost all of the early investors’ tokens were to be released by July 2026. But, with the changes made, this extends until July 2028The following graph shows how the distribution would have been originally over time (dotted line) and how it will be after the update reported here:
WLD Token Distribution Plan – Source: Worldcoin. The market reacted positively to these announcements. Below is a look at the WLD price with daily candles over time:
Worldcoin (WLD) price with daily candles. Source: TradingView. WLD has risen by 25% over the past day and by over 50% over the past 7 days. Traders are clearly looking forward to a slowdown in inflation for this crypto asset. In any case, WLD at $2.80 is still far from its all-time high above $11.
What is Worldcoin?
As BitcoinDynamic has explained, Worldcoin is a digital identification project created by the company Tools for Humanityco-founded by Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI. Its main goal is to create a global identification network that allows people to uniquely identify themselves and access various financial and digital identity services. Worldcoin has been involved in several controversies and criticisms since its launch. Some of the main concerns and controversies relate to the privacy and security of biometric data. Although Worldcoin claims that it does not store iris data, but rather an encrypted mathematical representation, many experts and privacy advocates They fear that this data collection could be vulnerable to hacking or misuse.. Moreover, the promise to protect data does not always reassure critics, who point out that Any system that collects such sensitive information is at risk of being exploited.