Worldcoin scans 2.16 million irises for €54 each

Worldcoin pays €54 per scanned iris

A device its maker calls an orb, a table in a shopping mall, and a reward of 25 digital coins. At current rates, that’s about €54. This is the price Worldcoin puts on the iris of anyone sitting before its machine. According to company data, more than 2,165,000 people have already accepted the deal. Spain is one of the countries with the most registered eyeballs.

The firm was founded by Sam Altman, who also leads the team behind ChatGPT. His argument is that scanning will help distinguish humans from AI when these systems become ubiquitous, something he believes will happen sooner rather than later. Worldcoin’s head in Europe admits, when asked, that this sounds like a dystopian novel.

What is Worldcoin’s orb and what does it certify?

The orb is essentially a camera. It has a sci-fi wrapper, a database behind it, and a cryptocurrency as bait. It records the iris pattern, converts it into an identifier, and returns a "human" certificate to the volunteer, theoretically proving they are a person and not a machine.

The uncomfortable point isn’t the camera, but who operates it. The system promising to protect humanity from machines is run by the same person developing those very machines capable of mimicking our writing and speech. The company hasn’t detailed how it will prevent its own device from becoming part of the infrastructure it claims to monitor.

Shopping malls as recruitment hubs

The company’s strategy doesn’t involve offices or administrative procedures: it sets up kiosks where there is foot traffic and free time. The digital currency reward is the hook, and the hook works. According to data released when the project launched, the system’s coin, Worldcoin, began trading around the same time, giving each iris a variable market price: 25 units, roughly €54 at Thursday’s exchange rate noted in the report.

Some argue recruitment would have been even more effective in vaccine queue lines, where the target audience was more concentrated. The observation is cynical, but it accurately describes the model’s logic: capture eyes where eyes are present and offer something immediate in exchange for something irretrievable.

Biometric data already surrendered without debate

The most repeated argument in circulating analyses doesn’t point to the iris, but to what came before. Fingerprints are handed over without incivil records to obtain a Spanish ID card (DNI), unthinkable in other countries. QR codes were used to enter bars and restaurants. Pandemic diagnostic tests left biological profiles in third-party hands.

The central objection is reasonable: the problem isn’t biometrics itself, but imposing it as the sole method of identification and storing that data without explicit consent or expiration dates. An iris cannot be changed like a password. That detail, which seems obvious, doesn’t appear in recruitment brochures.

From iris to traffic cameras: the same pattern

The connection established is one of method, not technology. Madrid deployed 257 control devices in its Low Emission Zone, with a warning period extending until January 14 and fines afterward, according to the institutional announcement accompanying this issue. A car that passed its technical inspection (ITV) a month ago can be barred from the M-30 ring road without anything changing except the rule.

In the same line of references appears the case of Ethiopia, which reportedly made digital identification mandatory for banking operations. And looking back, a frequently cited precedent: agreements signed in 2016 by the FBI to exchange iris databases with federal agencies and local police. Identifiers, records, access. The sequence repeats under different names.

The "I have nothing to hide" argument

The analytical stream carrying the most weight in this discussion doesn’t speak of direct coercion, but of majority effect. First, people surrender voluntarily in exchange for a reward. When a large portion of the population has gone through the hoop, those left out start to look suspicious, and then legislation requires certification for access to certain services. What was an offer becomes a requirement.

This isn’t a verified prediction, but an observed pattern. The company maintains that without such registration, any machine could impersonate a person during a procedure. For now, the debate stays there, with both sides convinced and the orbs running.

The company set the price: 25 Worldcoins, about €54 per iris. That coin’s trading value started the same week the company boasted of its more than two million eyes. No brochure says what an eye will be worth in five years.