When this first launched, I thought it was some kind of performance art, or a clever attempt to establish a precedent against building such things. Then, I realized he was serious.
Any actual criticisms?
[criticize(p) for p in worldcoin.properties]
Worldcoin isn’t as bad as it sounds: It’s worse
201–210 of 370 posts
Re: Worldcoin isn’t as bad as it sounds: It’s worse
#202Re: Worldcoin isn’t as bad as it sounds: It’s worse
#203This 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.
>What a waste of time/money/effort.
They won’t, in one side you have those “state sponsored” scams that will milk people’s money and trust, and on the other side you have a happy government because those at very least will keep people from trusting anything than the traditional centralized banks.
I am in the bitcoin world since mid 2010, it was that concept that any freedom and open source enthusiast will love, and it kept going that way until around 2016, gradually getting worse till 2020, then going downhill from there with these scams and Ponzi schemes, dozens of fraudulent coins and business models built around the fact how to scam people and cash out, or used for other means like this meme worldcoin one. Still, I like that you can have a truly decentralized way of funding other than traditional banks, and with some coins providing anonymity is a plus too respecting the user’s privacy.
Re: Worldcoin isn’t as bad as it sounds: It’s worse
#204I think you should instead just read what Worldcoin wrote. It's quite short, and I think easy to consider false. https://worldcoin.org/cofounder-letter There are a few words about economic opportunity but little explanation, so you can discount that part. They don't seem to believe it beyond UBI distribution, which has the same problems as any distribution today[1] Their main sell: > scale a reliable solution for dis…
> After visiting an Orb, a biometric verification device, you will receive a World ID. Literally everything about this is a huge nope for me.
I actually don’t understand _who_ is advocating for this.
Worldcoin seems like the peak of a top-down push to have perfect digital control over every human being.
Re: Worldcoin isn’t as bad as it sounds: It’s worse
#205Like 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…
To me the problem should be modelled similar to what we have now:
Some institutions (private or public) giving an ok or not ok on the keys. And platforms choosing which institutions to trust. At some point we may have platform choosing all governments+trustworthy institutions
You could make things like a "smart contract" returns your money (or triggers an investigation) if after 48 hours you report an issue with your account or transaction. Of course this would mean some change on the blockchains themselves
Re: Worldcoin isn’t as bad as it sounds: It’s worse
#206Earlier quoted context omitted.
> the ultimate and perhaps only proof of personhood is being a person, engaged in the world I buy this. Daniel Suarez had a very similar idea, although he referred to it as the bot problem[0]. I believe this approach of identities withstanding "the test of time" solves the oracle problem but at the cost of a delayed solution. Initially you have lots and lots of bots and Sybil attacks are common. Then after a while, i…
> My identity on hackernews is over 11 years old. Creating such an identity with the comment history, connection to a true name, and content over 11 years would be very expensive. Likely more expensive that a fake passport. Not if you have access to the HN database :^)
Plus now with ChatGPT, you don't even have to write the comments.
Re: Worldcoin isn’t as bad as it sounds: It’s worse
#207Earlier quoted context omitted.
As much as I think Worldcoin is dumb they do get this part right in that they only use the iris scan as a unique identifier to prevent multiple sign ups from the same physical bag of meat^H^H^H^H^H person.
>unique identifier to prevent multiple sign up Yet there’s already a black market where you can buy multiple accounts with real iris.
There is still a 1:1 relationship with accounts and people. They have just cut out some extra steps when the original account creator does whatever it is the 3rd party wants them to do manually.
That some people might use their Worldcoin account to do things on behalf of someone else is a different problem from the one OP was referring to.
Re: Worldcoin isn’t as bad as it sounds: It’s worse
#208This 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.
This is a really tired take. Please provide some substance as to why you think this is a bad project instead of just shitting in it without justification
Assuming new cryptocurrencies aren't scams is a really tired take. Please provide some substance as to why you think this is a good project instead of just defending it without justification.
Re: Worldcoin isn’t as bad as it sounds: It’s worse
#209Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yeah, the article and this whole comments thread is very intellectually dishonest. Disclosure: I’m like, 70% optimistic about the project. I don’t believe that the team are lying. Anyway, as with many things, time will tell. I wouldn’t get worked up over it. If it fails it’s pretty inconsequential.
Every single criticism I see about worldcoin gets something fundamentally wrong about how it works
Why should anyone care how a perpetual motion machine is purported to work? You just call it a scam and move on.
Re: Worldcoin isn’t as bad as it sounds: It’s worse
#210Earlier quoted context omitted.
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 wa…
Is it possible for people to understand how it works and to still oppose it being broadly adopted in your opinion? Can you please clarify what exactly others are not understanding or misrepresenting?