Government suspends registration of Worldcoin

Yesterday, authorities dispersed a crowd of people who had lined up to register for the cryptocurrency project at the Kenyatta International Convention Center (KICC) in Nairobi.

Officials involved cited security concerns as the reason for stopping the exercise that has been going on for a few days.

Before its suspension, the ODPC had warned Kenyans against associating themselves with the app, advising them to first inquire how the data harvested will be used.

The elephant in the room regarding the registration of Wordcoin is the compulsory scanning of eyeballs, in order to confirm the humanity of whoever is registering.

Once the scanning is done through special machines known as Orbs, a virtual human identity otherwise known as the World ID is created.

This project has become popular amongst many Kenyan citizens due to the tokens amounting to Sh7,700 awarded to a registered member.

The craze has seen Kenyans drag their families into registering for the project, an activity which has now been suspended by the government.