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Worldcoin has a new Orb and is now just World

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Re: Worldcoin has a new Orb and is now just World

#31
I'm sure this is fine, and there is no reason to be concerned that the same very rich person is behind this device as the AI technology whose worst outcomes it exists to combat.

Also there's a blockchain so that's great! I know you're not a crypto evangelist on Twitter anymore, or an NFT evangelist, and now you're an AI consultant and solutions provider. But here it is -- that great application for the blockchain you were all so sure was coming all along.

All tied up with one neat looped bow that can make you feel like it isn't somehow some empty, culture-destroying, billionaire-welfare griftapolooza.

And it's even a bit YCombinator because Sam Altman, right? He was always going to make it. He's got the killer instinct.

Re: Worldcoin has a new Orb and is now just World

#32
post #16

I've not researched how this works, but this definitely feels like one of those things where if you dig deep enough into it, it boils down to "we verify your 'humanness' by checking that there's your biometric data signed by our private key, for which the public key is hardcoded everywhere, so trust us please".

It actually uses a lot of modern cryptography (zero knowledge proofs, multiparty computation, decentralized consensus, etc) to avoid exactly that.

Re: Worldcoin has a new Orb and is now just World

#33
post #10

I'm sure there's already a plan to monetize and privatize what's soon to be the most valuable biometric database on earth. Plus it's cute how they developed the problem [reaction] solution in parallel. [1] > Something like World ID will eventually exist, meaning that you will need to verify [that you are human] on the internet, whether you like it or not. I think that's certainly going to happen with the progress in…

If we’re dealing with an all-powerful Skynet intelligence, or even a WOPR or Wintermute, won’t it just figure out how to bypass the verification system?

Re: Worldcoin has a new Orb and is now just World

#34

I get that this solution is distasteful. But verifying humanity on the Internet is a real problem that is getting harder and more important very quickly. CAPTCHAs aren't going to work much longer. What is a solution that people can live with?

If Ticketmaster wants to know I'm not a bot, I guess I would be OK signing a challenge with my government issued identity card [0] - for message boards that need to avoid spam and griefers, IMO an invite only system with revokable access to everyone a bad actor handed an invite code could be sufficient

Also scanning my eyeballs to have a private corporation give the thumbs up or thumbs down on whether I can access a particular service isnt merely distasteful but dystopian in a "we already lost" kind of way

[0] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Estonian_identity_card

Re: Worldcoin has a new Orb and is now just World

#35

I get that this solution is distasteful. But verifying humanity on the Internet is a real problem that is getting harder and more important very quickly. CAPTCHAs aren't going to work much longer. What is a solution that people can live with?

no need to reverse-engineer anything, both hardware[1] and software[2] are up on GitHub

[1]: https://github.com/worldcoin/orb-hardware [2]: https://github.com/worldcoin/orb-software

Re: Worldcoin has a new Orb and is now just World

#36
post #19
post #10

I'm sure there's already a plan to monetize and privatize what's soon to be the most valuable biometric database on earth. Plus it's cute how they developed the problem [reaction] solution in parallel. [1] > Something like World ID will eventually exist, meaning that you will need to verify [that you are human] on the internet, whether you like it or not. I think that's certainly going to happen with the progress in…

> > verify [that you are human] on the internet IMO it's crucial that we keep in mind the policy/engineering differences between: 1. Prove you're a human and share your global permanent ID. 2. Prove you're probably human. 3. Prove that if you're a bot you're at least the high-quality kind that isn't part of an army and whose operators are likely to follow the rules. In many cases #1 is overkill, difficult to engineer…

The finance industry has strict KYC laws to prevent fraud and funding of other criminal pursuits. Now we have several converging trends:

- we need to know if anyone ever says anything doubleplus ungood so we can punish them with a lifetime exile from society. what qualifies depends on the day and if mercury is in retrograde.

- data is useful for making money

- human verification on an AI-enshittified net becomes practically "required" to get any "legitimate" content, by which i mean the dreck we had pre-2022 as opposed to post-2022.

- everything as a subscription service

- also the ghost of web 3.0

More parties are incentivized to hoover more data. So although #1 is overkill and everything else you listed, it's the path more companies will be taking in a neverending arms race.

Re: Worldcoin has a new Orb and is now just World

#37
post #6

So if I understand this right, this is a physical thing you stand in front of to prove that you are a unique human before making some transaction with another possibly unique human...

You stand in front of the Orb. The Orb scans your biometric data and stores it in Sam's Database (Sam says he doesn't own the database, something something blockchain good of humanity - but Sam doesn't "own" OpenAI either). Once the Orb gathers enough people's biometrics, the Orb will become the gatekeeper for transactions. The Orb will verify your identity and humanity. Sam's Database will be more precise than your…

I often wonder if Peter Thiel is somewhere, laughing bitterly into a glass of terrible overpriced gin that only a billionaire would drink: "this fuckin' guy... this is my schtick"

Re: Worldcoin has a new Orb and is now just World

#38
post #10

I'm sure there's already a plan to monetize and privatize what's soon to be the most valuable biometric database on earth. Plus it's cute how they developed the problem [reaction] solution in parallel. [1] > Something like World ID will eventually exist, meaning that you will need to verify [that you are human] on the internet, whether you like it or not. I think that's certainly going to happen with the progress in…

> Something like World ID will eventually exist, meaning that you will need to verify [that you are human] on the internet, whether you like it or not. I think that's certainly going to happen with the progress in AI. No thanks. I would prefer to just opt out.

You won't have a choice depending on what it will gatekeep, just like how at the moment web users can't opt out of being fingerprinted [1] and data intercepted by Cloudflare when they want to visit their favourite site or have to live with never having root access to their phones if they want to use their bank's mobile app.

[1] https://blog.cloudflare.com/turnstile-ephemeral-ids-for-frau...

Re: Worldcoin has a new Orb and is now just World

#39
post #10

I'm sure there's already a plan to monetize and privatize what's soon to be the most valuable biometric database on earth. Plus it's cute how they developed the problem [reaction] solution in parallel. [1] > Something like World ID will eventually exist, meaning that you will need to verify [that you are human] on the internet, whether you like it or not. I think that's certainly going to happen with the progress in…

> Sam the snake

Please edit personal attacks out of your HN comments, as the site guidelines ask: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html. You may not owe people whom you call snakes better, but you owe this community better if you're participating in it.

This applies regardless of who the person in question is, because it's not about them, it's about us, i.e. the group you belong to.

Re: Worldcoin has a new Orb and is now just World

#40
post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Something like World ID will eventually exist, meaning that you will need to verify [that you are human] on the internet, whether you like it or not. I think that's certainly going to happen with the progress in AI. No thanks. I would prefer to just opt out.

If this was necessary to solve a problem, why wouldn't the existing Internet access points simply solve the problems? For example, why would Apple not add liveness detection to its devices, which users already trust with their biometric data? One could imagine a Web standard that specifies minimum capabilities for user agents, which could then be implemented in a variety of ways. Apple might use an upgraded FaceID, f…

This is what I thought. Finger print and face detection have been added with little fanfare. FAANG wont let this become a defacfo standard without a fight.
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