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Worldcoin isn’t as bad as it sounds: It’s worse

blockworks.co

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Re: Worldcoin isn’t as bad as it sounds: It’s worse

#71

Like any other non-coin crypto tech, Worldcoin doesn't do what it set out to do because it doesn't solve the oracle problem. If you trust their orb, it generates a wallet for you - but anyone, human or otherwise - can use that wallet. There's a black market in China for these identities already [1] and of course the response from Worldcoin was there's nothing they can do - because there's nothing they can do. So this…

What’s the “Oracle Problem”? Google gives me conflicting results

Re: Worldcoin isn’t as bad as it sounds: It’s worse

#73
post #21

Like any other non-coin crypto tech, Worldcoin doesn't do what it set out to do because it doesn't solve the oracle problem. If you trust their orb, it generates a wallet for you - but anyone, human or otherwise - can use that wallet. There's a black market in China for these identities already [1] and of course the response from Worldcoin was there's nothing they can do - because there's nothing they can do. So this…

It's funny how, in the end, the ultimate and perhaps only proof of personhood is being a person, engaged in the world. Sort of how the ultimate decentralized currency is encompassed in the global market of rising and falling economic powers. The oracle problem is a problem because there are no oracles. There is only the test of time. Or something along that line.

Almost by definition, everything else is a low resolution replica which is inevitably open to be exploited.

Re: Worldcoin isn’t as bad as it sounds: It’s worse

#74

This is the Eye of Sauron. I'm very much into the crypto world and I'm so tired of all of these dumb scams. Even worse that it is backed by yet another scammer named 'Sam'. I really wish we could focus on things that actually provided value to people. What a waste of time/money/effort. I hope this one dies a quick death. So far, it looks like it will, which is great.

Honest question, is there any cryptocurrency that provides actual value to people? The blockchain can be trivially deanonymized from my understanding. It's difficult to get coins without at any point revealing your identity. So, if you're not in a circle of people who will physically trade coin for cash (or vis-versa) there seems to be no privacy argument.

I just fail to see crypto as anything but a scam - period. It's like physical gold and silver but worse at everything they do. How can one even derive value from a coin like bitcoin where the swings are often worse than the bolivar.

Re: Worldcoin isn’t as bad as it sounds: It’s worse

#76

Like any other non-coin crypto tech, Worldcoin doesn't do what it set out to do because it doesn't solve the oracle problem. If you trust their orb, it generates a wallet for you - but anyone, human or otherwise - can use that wallet. There's a black market in China for these identities already [1] and of course the response from Worldcoin was there's nothing they can do - because there's nothing they can do. So this…

I mean technically the system is proof-of-eyeball rather than proof-of-identity, so you also need to trust any opportunistic criminals in your zip code that have access to spoons.

Re: Worldcoin isn’t as bad as it sounds: It’s worse

#78

Like any other non-coin crypto tech, Worldcoin doesn't do what it set out to do because it doesn't solve the oracle problem. If you trust their orb, it generates a wallet for you - but anyone, human or otherwise - can use that wallet. There's a black market in China for these identities already [1] and of course the response from Worldcoin was there's nothing they can do - because there's nothing they can do. So this…

You generate the secret keys beforehand in your wallet, and then only link them (in zero knowledge) with the iris hash.[1] , [2] If we're going to be critical, let's at least understand how it works first. [1]: https://twitter.com/ercwl/status/1684939802083282944 [2]: https://vitalik.ca/general/2023/07/24/biometric.html

Most criticisms of worldcoin completely misunderstand/misrepresent how it works but this one does not. The GP is correctly pointing out that the iris hash is only necessary for receiving some of the initial airdrop. It is completely true that once a wallet is generated (and you don't even need to visit an orb to create a wallet) anyone who possesses the private key, human or robot, can send transactions using that wallet. Receiving some of the initial airdrop really does require trusting worldcoin that they are telling the truth and not saving images of your iris.

Re: Worldcoin isn’t as bad as it sounds: It’s worse

#79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

reputation based

The existing finance system is largely reputation based, with a light side of contract enforcement and a heavy dose of middlemen. It mostly works, but one of the biggest advantage of crypto stuff is removing the need for reputation and trust.

> one of the biggest advantage of crypto stuff is removing the need for reputation and trust.

I don't think it does that, though, at least when used as a currency. The irreversibility of crypto transactions means that you have to have some trust that the person you're dealing with will be willing to make things right when erroneous transactions happen.

Re: Worldcoin isn’t as bad as it sounds: It’s worse

#80

Like any other non-coin crypto tech, Worldcoin doesn't do what it set out to do because it doesn't solve the oracle problem. If you trust their orb, it generates a wallet for you - but anyone, human or otherwise - can use that wallet. There's a black market in China for these identities already [1] and of course the response from Worldcoin was there's nothing they can do - because there's nothing they can do. So this…

I often see in software dev this idea of solving a problem by just offloading the problem onto another team/customer. I guess crypto is fundamentally that. Trust, fraud, identity, insurance, are all very complex things that require massive institutions to manage successfully. But these crypto organizations are always just, shrug "yeah that's not our problem. Whatcha gonna do?" I guess that is the core principle to be…

With most crypto projects it's actively worse because they tell their users that "trust, fraud, identity etc don't matter because we have a blockchain!".

The rare few which are pretty upfront in saying that in exchange for their strong privacy guarantees the user is fully responsible for everything, are the only ones with any real utility (eg Monero).

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