Sam Altman-Backed Worldcoin Introduces Competitor to Apple’s Face ID [Video]

Worldcoin, the biometric cryptocurrency project backed by OpenAI‘s Sam Altman, is launching a new privacy feature called Face Auth, a program that it says can help stop fraud online.

Formally launched last July, Worldcoin is a blockchain-based eyeball-scanning “proof of personhood” initiative, combined with a financial network, that asks users to scan their irises using a proprietary biometric device it calls The Orb.

In exchange, the user is given a “digital ID” as well as a cryptocurrency token and a way to make payments using that token. Part of the idea behind the project, as previously outlined by Altman, is that advancements in AI are making it increasingly difficult to tell whether a piece of digital content was made by humans rather than a bot or algorithm.

The new Face Auth feature is a facial comparison program that can only be activated by the person who has already verified their digital identification, or “World ID.” This is …