The Worldcoin Foundation announced in a blog post that it has open-sourced components of the software running its iris-scanning Orbs, making it publicly available. 

According to the announcement the core components of the Orb software can be accessed on GitHub under an MIT/Apache 2.0 dual license. The new open-source components “complement” hardware it previously released.

The release includes code on the Orb which is crucial for capturing images and securely transferring them to the product's app.

Worldcoin said that its publicly available software and iris recognition repositories mark “significant progress” in creating transparency for the Orb’s image processing, along with verifiable privacy claims.

In addition to open-sourcing more of the software behind the infamous metallic, eye-scanning Orb, Worldcoin revealed another privacy feature called “Personal Custody.” 

This new feature allows individual users to self-custody their data given over to Worldcoin through a data package signed with the Orb’s private key and then encrypted with a user-provided public key before it is transferred to the user's mobile phone.

The developer said this means that users will “always remain in control of their data,” and only the individual can decrypt this biometric data. Worldcoin said:

“Once the encrypted data is sent from the Orb to the individual’s World App, no unencrypted copies of this data exist anywhere.”

According to the developer, the feature could potentially reduce the number of times users would need to return to an Orb to verify their World ID.

Related: Data privacy and security concerns worry nearly half of tech industry consumers: Report

This update to Worldcoin comes as the company faces scrutiny from global regulators over privacy concerns. On March 21, the Kenyan government denied a request from the United States government to revoke its suspensions of the Worldcoin project.

The government said it would ban Worldcoin activities in the country until it can be assured of its safety for the Kenyan people and integrity of financial details are provided.

On March 18, Worldcoin posted on its blog that it operates “lawfully in all of the locations in which it is available” and is fully compliant with all laws and regulations governing data collection and data transfer.

However, earlier in March, it received more pushback. This time, the Spanish Agency for the Protection of Data demanded that Worldcoin stop collecting and processing data locally and issued a temporary ban on its operations.

Worldcoin was co-founded by Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, the firm behind artificial intelligence (AI)-based chatbot ChatGPT. OpenAI is also currently facing scrutiny for its decision not to open-source its code for its AI models.

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One of my key questions about the next era in crypto and blockchain is this: How will all the capital likely be deployed into digital assets and cryptocurrencies as they become better regulated?

More than 90% of the world’s financial and business assets are considered “on-shore” – that is, they are owned and managed by entities and people residing in the countries where they are bought and sold.

Today, most crypto-assets are bought and sold off-shore (I estimate about 80% based on data from CoinGecko). However, as more regulated opportunities open up, new capital will flow into these digital asset environments. I don’t, however, think there will be a huge new range of cryptocurrency growth opportunities.

If you read my columns regularly, you know that I strongly believe that Ethereum will follow the path of many other technology ecosystems towards dominance. Ethereum is, first and foremost, a technology platform. Yes, ETH is a cryptocurrency, but its main demand driver is for use, as a payment for transaction processing. I think over time, ETH will largely be subject to the laws of supply and demand for processing power on this “world computer.”

The technology industry needs and thrives upon standards that provide economies of scale and network effects. Ethereum has won the standards war for programming and has largely fixed its scalability issues, making it the default choice. Digital assets will, by and large, exist in the Ethereum ecosystem.

Digital assets can be much bigger than just a digital version of gold

Bitcoin isn’t subject to the same rules. Though people tend to lump them together, Bitcoin is a true crypto-asset and very much like gold; people don’t buy it with plans to use it. They buy it for its scarcity value and to see it appreciate as an asset. Like gold, people do not expect Bitcoin to generate a cash flow, just to appreciate through its scarcity.

Nor do I think that recent efforts to add a Layer 2 ecosystem to Bitcoin, similar to what exists in Ethereum, is likely to change this outcome. The Ethereum ecosystem has an enormous lead and Bitcoin users that want to make their asset programmable have already been migrating it into “wrapped” Bitcoins on Ethereum for some time.

So, can there be only one Bitcoin?

Theoretically, there can be infinite Bitcoins. It feels like there practically already are. Litecoin, Dogecoin, and countless other meme coins and cryptocurrencies are nearly identical copies of Bitcoin. And while there is no BrodyCoin as of yet, I do offer complimentary NFTs (get yours here!).

Despite the effectively infinite supply of Bitcoin copies, I suspect that there really can and only ever will be one Bitcoin, and it’s the one we already have. Let’s stick with the gold analogy. While there isn’t an infinite supply of gold, there are quite a few other precious metals out there. We could just as easily trade in silver or diamonds as gold.

Despite there being multiple options available, however, gold absolutely dominates the market for precious metals. The total market cap of global gold stores is estimated at $13.7 trillion. Silver comes in at just $1.3 trillion and the market cap. An order of magnitude separates gold from the next alternative and so I believe we will see Bitcoin retain a position in the order of a magnitude higher than any other alternative crypto asset.

I think this has a couple of important implications for people as they prepare for the next wave of growth in these markets that will come from a regulated era. The first is that inventing a new cryptocurrency isn’t necessarily going to be a path to success. Bitcoin has that role and, as people want digital gold, that is what they are going to buy.

Second, the world of digital assets should, and can be much bigger than just a digital version of gold. Oil is essential (for the moment) to the global economy and it’s 10 times larger than gold – doing $1.7 trillion in revenue (not to be confused with market cap) annually. Net new growth opportunities are likely to be much bigger by creating something that is used by consumers or needed by enterprises. That space is much larger than holding reserve assets. It’s where I’ll be looking for the next opportunities for real growth.