Opening statement to the Kenya Parliamentary committee

Chairperson, honorable members of the Committee, my name is Alex Blania, and I am the CEO and Co-founder of Tools for Humanity, the initiator of the Worldcoin project.

It is a privilege and honor to be back in Kenya and with you today. I speak on behalf of myself, the entire Tools for Humanity team, and more importantly, the local businesses, entrepreneurs and developers here in Kenya working with Worldcoin when I say thank you for providing me the opportunity to address your important questions and concerns.

I first visited Nairobi nearly two years ago and was deeply inspired by the enthusiastic embrace of Worldcoin and its mission by the Kenyan people. Kenya’s proactive adoption of cutting-edge innovations and its position as the technology leader of Africa made this response unsurprising. Nonetheless, I have been personally moved by the positive reactions and the partnerships that have been forged. 

I genuinely value the opportunity to answer your questions and shed light on our efforts, our history, and the goals of the Worldcoin project. 

Worldcoin consists of three elements. First, World ID, a mechanism to digitally verify that you are a unique human vs for example a bot spreading misinformation; Second, the Worldcoin Token, a crypto asset that every Worldcoin participant can claim a share in; and Third, World App, the first and easy to use digital wallet for Worldcoin.

Four years ago when Sam Altman (also known as the CEO of OpenAI, the creator ChatGPT), Max Novendstern and I started working on Worldcoin, the first challenge we encountered was what is known as “Proof of Personhood”: how to digitally verify that someone is a genuine, unique human, rather than a bot or a program.

• After exploring various technologies, suitable for billions of people, regardless of their background or location, we discovered that biometrics were the most scalable and fraud-resistant approach that also preserved privacy.
• ​We then considered different biometric options, like face images and fingerprints, but the iris, a trait commonly used for example, in airports or for the issuance of government IDs was the only trait suitable for a global scale involving billions of people.
• ​Finally, we sought to use existing technology for these purposes. Unfortunately nothing on the market provided sufficiently detailed iris images and the required level of security. As a result, we set out to develop a new and sophisticated hardware device, which became the Orb that you are now familiar with.

At its heart, the Orb is a high quality camera with numerous anti-fraud measures and safety certifications:

• It first takes a series of pictures and analyzes those pictures to determine that you’re human and alive.
• ​Then it takes a picture of your iris and converts that picture into a unique “iris code,” or a unique series of numbers that is not shared with anyone. 
• ​By default, all images are erased and the iris code is sent to a secure server.
• ​The system then checks the code against all existing codes. If it is unique, you receive your World ID. 
• Importantly, the technology ensures your World ID cannot be linked to you or your financial wallet, making it the most privacy preserving solution to a very important problem. 
• Once someone has a World ID they are then eligible to receive their share of Worldcoin tokens simply for being human and part of the network.

For the avoidance of doubt, Worldcoin does not and never will involve the collection or selling of data. No one – not even Tools for Humanity – can link biometric data to World ID. Further, the majority of the internal schematics and technical details of the technology are publically available on the internet for everyone to review.

When we started our beta rollout – alongside countries like Germany, Portugal and India – Kenya was naturally a key market thanks to high rates of mobile phone penetration, an incredibly successful mobile money ecosystem, and a business friendly climate. 

Over the past year and a half, Tools for Humanity invested over 700 million shillings in Kenya and the Kenyan people, building a network of 200+ Kenyan suppliers, with more than 20 verification locations, and valuable partnerships with institutions such as Strathmore University, the Blockchain Association of Kenya, the American Chamber of Commerce, the Africa Blockchain Centre, New Hope Mukuru and others. 

We also partnered closely with the regulatory bodies, engaging directly with the Office of the Data Protection Commissioner for the past 18 months to ensure that our technology and processes meet Kenya’s high standards for data protection. Beta operations went smoothly and hundreds of thousands of Kenyans were able to acquire World IDs and claim their share of Worldcoin, which remained untraded on global exchanges until the launch. 

Then, on July 24th the Worldcoin protocol went live, meaning the token became available on global exchanges and the public was excited to participate in the project by claiming their share of Worldcoin. While we had spent more than three years preparing for this day technologically, we were not prepared for the demand for World ID to increase thirty times practically overnight. I personally would like to acknowledge that we could have done a better job in managing this increase in demand and the long lines that came with it.

Furthermore, over the past two years we also could have done a better job explaining who we are, what we’re doing, and why we are asking people to verify their humanness. Fundamentally, we’re here to right this wrong; to answer your questions openly and honestly.

I certainly hope that my colleagues and I are able to answer your questions in a satisfactory manner. We seek to work with you to make this technology part of Kenya’s thriving tech community, which has warmly embraced us. Thank you again for the opportunity to address this esteemed body. 

Thank you Honorable Chair

Alex Blania