Understanding Worldcoin and its popularity in Argentina and around the world

Worldcoin is a global project leveraging exciting new ideas and technology to increase access to digital identity and finance. It’s seeing rapid adoption throughout Argentina and other countries around the world. 

Central to Worldcoin’s mission is World ID, a digital passport that allows anyone to privately prove their humanness on the internet. This is an important first step in giving access to financial services to the 4.4 billion people worldwide who don’t have a digitally-verifiable legal identity. It’s also part of what makes Worldcoin so unique; access is granted freely to all unique humans without any other identification requirements. 

To receive a fully verified World ID, a person must verify their uniqueness and humanness using an IEC-certified imaging device called the Orb. Nearly 3 million individuals have verified their World ID at an Orb globally, with more than 500,000 of those verifications taking place in locations across Argentina. 

Other countries verifying World IDs include the US, Spain, Portugal, Germany and Singapore, which began operations in December. 

Worldcoin was founded as a way to provide free and fair access to the global digital economy. With the rapid advance of AI, it became clear that the project’s proof of humanness technology also filled a growing need to verify humanness online. 

World ID is already integrated with popular apps including Shopify, Telegram and Reddit to help people verify their online accounts. It will soon be integrated with other platforms including Mercado Libre as well.

In addition to online integrations, Orb verified World ID holders in countries where it’s allowed are able to claim free WLD tokens, or grants, at regular intervals. Grant schedules are available in World App, the first wallet created for the Worldcoin ecosystem, and platforms such as Ramp can be used, where available, to safely convert or withdraw WLD.

There are many more promising applications and use cases for proof of humanness technologies like World ID. Some of these are reducing bots in video games and social media sites as well as deterring e-commerce fraud. 

No personal information (name, age, email, phone number, etc.) is required to sign up for and use Worldcoin, World ID or World App. That’s because Worldcoin doesn’t seek to know who you are, just that you are a unique human. 

The human iris is one of the most accurate, precise, privacy preserving and fraud resistant ways to determine a person’s unique humanness. The Orb securely generates an iris code to verify a person’s World ID. This enhances privacy because iris codes contain much less data than iris images and are extremely difficult to reverse-engineer. The use of iris codes also allows for the complete deletion of iris images. 

All images or information used to create an individual’s unique World ID are by default promptly deleted. Images are never sold or used for marketing purposes. You can follow the links to learn more about privacy and iris codes.

More than 1% of the Argentine population has now verified their World ID, similar to milestones set in Chile (1.5%), Spain (0.8%) and Portugal (2.5%). 

The growing popularity of Worldcoin in Argentina and around the World can be attributed to three key factors:

• An increase in the general understanding of AI and its implications online
• An increase in the utility of World ID via integrations with popular apps
• Open access to the digital economy through free WLD token grants

To continue meeting the diversity of demand as inclusively and efficiently as possible, the contributing team at Tools for Humanity (TFH) has released an update to the in-app verification process. The update features a new multi-hour appointment window designed to help streamline Orb verifications and reduce wait times for those with booked appointments.

“It’s encouraging to see the positive response to World ID in Argentina, and the impact the Worldcoin project is having on Argentinians of all backgrounds, including those who are ‘tech-forward’ as well as individuals who use cryptocurrency to provide for their families,” said Martin Mazza, regional manager for Latin America at TFH. “Innovation like this is essential to ensure our operations are efficient, orderly and accessible to everyone in Argentina who would like to participate while still meeting demand.” 

To learn more about Worldcoin, visit the Worldcoin website or sign up for the blog newsletter at the bottom of this page. You can also join the ongoing daily conversations on Twitter/X, Telegram, Discord and LinkedIn.

Additional important information concerning the project is available in the Worldcoin protocol whitepaper.