Last Updated on May 19, 2023 by Bitfinsider

BlockBeats, a Chinese news site, reported earlier today that users in China — where people cannot yet sign up to earn a part of the Worldcoin token when it starts — are paying as little as $30 for iris scans obtained in Cambodia and Africa. Twitter users reacted angrily to the news.

In a written statement supplied to The Block, a Worldcoin official acknowledged the incidences, but highlighted that the problem was limited to “a few hundred instances.”

“Through ongoing threat and awareness monitoring measures, the Worldcoin team identified suspicious and potentially fraudulent activity whereby individuals were incentivized to sign up for a verified World ID that was then delivered to a third party’s World App rather than their own,” they added.

Worldcoin has made many steps to address the problem. “Adjustments to the initial in-person signup process and the implementation of dynamic vs static QR codes,” according to the spokeswoman.

In a blog post published in March, the initiative addressed the issue of account theft. “Once proof of personhood is granted, it is critical to ensure that it is difficult to sell or steal while remaining easy to recover,” Worldcoin wrote in a blog post.

It added that users might restore their World ID — their verified account — by being scanned a second time by an orb. This, according to Worldcoin, will help deter the illicit sale of proof-of-personhood credentials.

“Despite these precautions, it is important to recognize that they do not completely protect against collusion or other attempts to circumvent the one-person-one-proof principle.” To solve these issues, “innovative ideas in mechanism design and social relationship attribution will be required,” according to the study.