The device is called ORB and it is a silver sphere that stands on a foot of a meter and a half. Tourists, especially the youngest, stop and ask what it is for. The surprise gestures multiply when the three girls who are there explain it. They came to Pinamar to promote a new cryptocurrency called “worldcoin”. The speech is brief: “It is a virtual wallet. It’s like a ‘MercadoPago’, but for cryptos”, they say. The down payment is effective: “If you download the app now we will automatically give you 25 worldcoins and, in addition, we will give you three courses. For each one you are credited 3 dollars ”, they add. The queries made by the curious are obvious: “Is it free? Don’t I have to do anything?” The promoters say no, that all they have to do is download it and validate their identity by bringing their face closer to the device. Ready.
The group of promoters sets up shop every afternoon at 5:00 p.m. on Bunge and Avenida del Mar, and at 8:30 p.m. they travel three blocks to the doors of CenterPlay, the electronic games venue. The scene could well be straight out of a dystopian movie: after spending a whole day at the beach, the groups of friends willingly and with a smile agree to have the ORB scan the iris of their eye. Nobody asks details about privacy, computer security, the way in which the company will take care of or use the biometric data stored by the device or what would happen in the event of a possible hacking of that information. There’s free silver and a share of futuristic charm.
Unanswered. The promoters are usually accompanied by older youth. They were the ones who derived the query from NOTICIAS to do an interview with the representative of Argentina from “worldcoin”, but they never communicated. Through social networks, the company did not respond either.
worldcoin landed in Buenos Aires six months ago and now they are on the coast. In addition to Pinamar, the group of promoters with the ORB was also in Villa Gesell and Mar del Plata. When the name of the company is Googled, newspaper articles from the countries in which it operates appear, warning about the controversial collection of biometric data. The specialists consulted by NEWS knew of its existence and expressed their alerts.
Adam Dubove, a specialist on the subject and director of Ichimoku Fibonacci, was blunt: “Of all the cryptos that exist, Worlcoin seems to me the most perverse. The distribution mechanism consists of a person giving their biometric data to a third party with little clarity about who that third party is and what they do with them in exchange for worthless tokens,” he said. Natalia Zuazo, a technology specialist and UNESCO consultant, focused on the legal gray areas: “I entered the site to look for the privacy policy and a sign appears that says ‘completely private forever’. But when I went to look under which law they work, nothing appears. There are no references to Argentine legislation, but neither, for example, to the General Data Regulation of the European Union, which is the one they could be using because they operate worldwide, ”she said.
Worldcoin and biometric alerts
The promoters explain that the only way to validate a user’s identity is by scanning the iris of the eye with the ORB. “This is so that a person does not have more than one account and receive two or three times the money,” they say. The verification mechanism is called “truth of humanity”. And they clarify that the company “does not save the data”. “It is impossible that they do not store. If you don’t keep them, how do you check after that person hasn’t already created an account?”, he wonders. thump.
worldcoin Argentina does not have a physical place, but moves through the ORB in different meeting points. If someone wants to download the application in Buenos Aires, for example, they have to search the networks where the promoters will be.
Specialists divide the risks into two: those associated with the delivery of biometric data and financial ones.
“Systems for the use of biometric data exist in airports or banks and are subject to rules. Why is it so important to control them? Because, for example, in the event of a hack or a security problem, you can change the password of your email or your phone. But you will never be able to change biometrics,” he explained. thump.
Regarding finances, the same promoters tell tourists that “for now, the currency has no value. But as it becomes more popular it will cost more. That’s why we’re doing this campaign now.” Dubove He maintained that this mechanism has an announced end -similar to what has already been seen with other virtual currencies-: “Once they generate attention about the token in a certain niche, its price begins to rise due to demand. The founders, team members and their friends there sell their millions of tokens and earn millions of dollars. Then the price returns close to zero. Those who bought lose and those who set up the project abandon and start preparing the next one, ”he said. L
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