Worldcoin Trials Facial Recognition for World App

• Worldcoin has rolled out the pilot of its Face Auth in a bid to break into the space largely dominated by the likes of Apple and Google. 
• Face Auth is reported to be a little different with its “agnosticism and future open-sourcing plan,” with use cases transcending the financial sector to healthcare. 

Sam Altman’s proof of humanity project, Worldcoin (WLD), has launched a pilot of its cutting-edge innovation called Face Authentication (Face Auth). According to reports, this feature is designed to improve security and prevent fraud in moments of financial transactions, online purchases, secure sign-in applications, etc. 

Face Auth, which is a private 1:1 face comparison, works by comparing a selfie taken from a user’s phone to images securely taken by the orb during verification and stored on the phone. Based on our research, personal information, including selfies stored on an individual’s phone, is encrypted with their key, giving them control over their data. 

Chris Brendel, the Head of AI and Biometrics at Tools for Humanity, commented on this and confirmed the project’s basic aim.

Face authentication is one of the main primitives for any identity system. And what face authentication actually enables is that we can make sure that the user in front of the phone is still the same as during the enrollment at an orb. The phone knows the facial information because it’s part of this personal data custody package that has been sent by the orb and is signed by the orb. And the user can just take a selfie anytime and then the phone can just match both of those faces and just make sure that it’s still the same person.

Face Auth’s Unique Offering Amid Regulatory Concerns of Worldcoin

Over the years, tech giants like Apple and Google have dominated the biometric authentication industry. However, Face Auth is reportedly different due to its “ mobile platform agnosticism and future open-sourcing plan.” According to official reports, its use could extend beyond the financial world to the healthcare sector and online services. 

Throwing more light on this, Chris explained that Face Auth is fairly similar to Apple’s Face ID. 

There’s just one particular difference, which is that the one image you try to match against does not come from your phone but it’s taken by the orb, and the orb is guaranteeing a way higher security level. It checks for way more fraud measures than any phone could do, and therefore we can guarantee a higher level of security just simply because one part of the two images has been taken by a very secure hardware.

Currently, the World App digital wallet is used by almost 15 million people globally with 6.7 million users completing the human verification process using its iris-scanning orbs. However, it has faced several regulatory concerns with the recent one coming from Columbia. According to Colombia’s Superintendence of Industry and Commerce (SIC), Worldcoin and its company allegedly violated the country’s personal data protection regime via the collection of personal data. 

It is worth noting that Worldcoin only launched in Columbia in June this year, with orb devices found in 25 locations within seven cities in the country. Similarly, the project was temporarily banned in Spain earlier this year. Against the backdrop of these regulatory challenges, Worldcoin keeps expanding with CNF recently reporting its latest launch in Poland. 

At press time, WLD was trading at $1.64 after surging by 3.4% in the last 24 hours. According to analysts, the trial program could marginally impact the price of WLD. However, its overall movement would depend on the broad market sentiment.