Worldcoin, Sam Altman’s retina-scanning crypto ID project, had a wild ride over the weekend after Altman was fired as CEO of OpenAI.
Worldcoin (WLD), the cryptocurrency of Sam Altman’s ambitious Worldcoin project, has seen intense price volatility over the weekend, following Altman’s departure from OpenAI.
A November 17 statement from OpenAI – the developer of ChatGPT – outlined that Altman was fired because he was “not consistently candid in his communications with the board”.
In the hours following the news, WLD fell from $2.45 to $2.00, representing an 18% loss.
Late on November 18, WLD fell even further, dropping down to $1.87.
WLD regained losses in one day
On November 19, the OpenAI board was in discussions to see Altman return to the company. The deal however fell through, and Twitch CEO Emmet Shear was appointed CEO instead. He is OpenAI’s third CEO in one weekend.
Following Shear’s appointment, Worldcoin recovered its weekend losses, climbing to $2.55 – a new 5-month high.
At the time of writing, the token is trading at $2.33, representing a 21% 7-day gain.
Read more: Sam Altman close to securing $100M funding for iris-scanning crypto project Worldcoin
Worldcoin is a controversial crypto project that uses a retina-scanning device to establish “personhood”, differentiating people from a neural network or robot. The project is a separate entity from OpenAI.
How Worldcoin works
Worldcoin uses a device known as ‘The Orb’ – a biometric imaging device that scans the iris of a user in order to verify them as a unique human being.
Once an iris scan is complete and personhood has been proven, Worldcoin creates a cryptographic hash that can be used to anonymously identify users through the World App. Once verified, users can securely sign in to websites, mobile apps and crypto dapps without sharing personal data like a name or email address.
The project was founded more than three years ago, and it’s received funding from Andreessen Horowitz, Khosla Ventures, internet entrepreneur Reid Hoffman and Sam Bankman-Fried.
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