WorldCoin co-founder and CEO Alex Blania on Wednesday, September 6 refuted claims that the machine used for scanning beneficiaries’ iris had health complications.
Appearing before the National Assembly Ad Hoc Committee investigating WorldCoin operations, Blania debunked allegations that Orbs, used to scan people’s iris caused health complications.
“That is not possible. World Coin is produced in Germany- one of the strictest certification agencies in the World. All the certifications are listed in the document. The Orb cannot cause any health issues,” Blania told the committee members.
He further defended the scanning insisting that it was key to distinguishing individuals registering with the cryptocurrency project. Blania further elaborated that the data collected was safely stored in South Africa and Italy.
“We do not seek to harvest data and monetize it. The agenda is to protect privacy. Our goal is not to create an environment that identifies the user
“Images of a person’s iris are immediately deleted from the orb device. It is the nature of the AI models that we need data to train the model to distinguish people,” the company stated during a grilling session with committee members.
The WorldCoin Chief Executive Officer dismissed eyesight problem concerns a day after a university student told the committee that he had encountered eye problems after scanning his iris.
Marube Mogusu, one of the witnesses, on Tuesday, September 5, submitted that after undergoing the scan he started experiencing eye problems and had to seek medical assistance.
“After the scan, my eyes started becoming watery. I have been on prescribed glasses ever since that time. I don’t know if it is a coincidence or it is the world coin scan,” he told the committee.
Other beneficiaries lamented that they were duped to scanning their iris and only received Ksh2,000 instead of Ksh7,000 as promised.
“They came to school and registered us. They used Iris scan to verify that you are a human being. Upon verifying that you are a human being, they would give you 25 World coins which is currently equivalent to 70 USD. They promised Ksh7,000 but I got only Ksh2,000,” he stated.
Over 635,000 Kenyans registered with WorldCoin in Kenya before the Ministry of Interior led by Cabinet Secretary Kithure Kindiki halted its operations.
The Office of Data Commissioner raised concerns prompting the decision by CS Kindiki.
Photo|Courtesy.
