Silicon Valley startup Worldcoin offers free crypto for a scan of your eyes

Peculiar business ideas are certainly nothing special in California's Silicon Valley, hub of the American tech industry. However, a new crypto startup which already garnered a US$1 billion evaluation has now made headlines with its exciting business model that revolves around the notion of a free crypto payment in exchange for a scan of the eyes of its customers.

This scan is taken by a futuristic orb-shaped device which can be seen in the picture above. This scanner, which itself looks like a human eye, was supposedly already used by thousands of participants in overall twelve countries worldwide. The picture of the customer's retina is then used to create a unique code, and for privacy reasons only this code will be transmitted to Worldcoin's servers. In exchange for a scan of their eyes, customers are promised to receive a share of the new cryptocurrency Worldcoin, which sounds like an intriguing business concept.

In comparison to other cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin or Ethereum, every human being on the planet is eligible to claim his own share of this new digital currency. The retina scan is apparently intended to make sure that only real human beings can claim a fair share of Worldcoin one time only. Expensive cryptomining GPUs like an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070 (from US$991 on Amazon) are not required for Worldcoin, which is why more than the currently just 3% of the world's population will be able to own this new coin. The superior accessibility could potentially enable the Worldcoin to quickly gain traction in countries where expensive cryptomining equipment is financially out of reach for the vast majority of people.