Queues, cryptocurrencies and iris scans: the 20 days that the Worldcoin party lasted in Spain

Whether or not to scan the iris. Pablo Martín, 18, did not consider that dilemma last December, when he had the opportunity to glue his right eye to a futuristic-looking metal sphere the size of a soccer ball. “Don’t move or blink. Wait for the lights to turn on leds“said a young man in a black T-shirt who served him in a shopping center in Madrid. Suddenly a white light flickered: “Ready, you have your World ID and in 24 hours you will receive the coins that you have accumulated during this time.” Martín looked perplexed at his cell phone; a passport was floating on the screen that guaranteed him “proof of humanity.”

-And that?

—This way you can prove that you are a real human.

Martín is one of the approximately 400,000 people in Spain who had their iris scanned in a Orb -the sphere- from Worldcoin, the firm founded by Sam Altman (also responsible for Open AI), which delivers cryptocurrencies in exchange for eye photography. In its beginnings, eight months ago, the company went unnoticed because the value of the currencies it distributed was low, around the euro. But the explosive rise in its price overnight in mid-February changed everything. Suddenly, thousands of people crowded into shopping centers and queued for several hours to claim the 80 euros that could be obtained at that time. The fever lasted 20 days: at the beginning of March, the Spanish Data Protection Agency (AEPD) stopped Worldcoin’s operations in Spain. The entity demanded to know how the American firm was treating such sensitive biometric information. For now, the measure is precautionary.

This was a market that was fed by enthusiasm, ignorance or necessity, as is the case of Daniel Guerrero, a 36-year-old Venezuelan who is waiting for his humanitarian asylum to be approved: “With the white sheet that the police gives you, you cannot You can work for 6 months, you have to see how you survive that time to support yourself.” Worldcoin aims for every human being to have a digital passport—the World ID— that distinguishes it from the bots who, driven by artificial intelligence, have begun to create music, design images or comment on internet forums. The only way to achieve this, the company argues, is by linking this passport with the most exclusive human part of all: the iris.

This is what they told Pedro Durán in a shopping center in Valencia, where he found the Worldcoin orb. This 26-year-old believed that the trappings of the sphere and the “proof of humanity” discourse would lead nowhere. Although at first he collected the coins that the application distributed every ten days, upon seeing that their low value did not change, he left the platform in oblivion.

Everything changed on February 12. That day the price of the cryptocurrency began to rise, going from two to six euros in a week. In Madrid, Martín jumped off his couch when he saw the information on his mobile phone: suddenly he had accumulated nearly 100 euros in worldcoins; In the case of Durán it was 400. “I immediately called a friend to invite him. “I couldn’t believe it,” Martín recalls.

On February 19, the cryptocurrency reached 7.5 euros and six days later it reached eight. During that week, for registering in the application, each user received 10 coins, plus eight, on average, for inviting an extra person. The news of free money It spread like wildfire on social networks: in the 30 shopping centers where the iris could be scanned, the scans tripled, says Elisa, who worked as a checker in a gallery in Murcia and prefers not to share her real name.

Worldcoin Spain reinforced the workforce and allowed overtime to meet the huge demand, recalls this 30-year-old employee. “People came with their parents, nephews, uncles, children and grandparents. It was non-stop every day. Some families even brought their minor children and begged me to scan their irises, something that is prohibited,” she recalls. A Worldcoin employee defrauded a minor in Madrid of 731 euros during those days, according to her mother.

“The price is going to continue rising,” proclaimed in those days the youtuber Valencian José Abenza, better known as Joos Crypto, who claimed that people came to shopping centers driven by FOMO (acronym for fear of being left out, in English), that is, the fear of missing the train of novelty. This investor, with more than eight years of experience in the crypto world, links the rapid growth of the cryptocurrency with the announcement of Sora – an artificial intelligence program that generates videos – by Open AI. “People started buying worldcoin on exchange platforms because they thought they were somehow investing in the company, although at the moment they have nothing to do with it,” he now details in conversation with EL PAÍS.

Receiving worldcoins was for Durán and Martín a springboard into the world of cryptocurrencies. The first, who is a nurse in Valencia, began studying the economics of virtual currencies for an hour a day because he wanted to “diversify his portfolio.” The second, about to oppose the army, also set its sights on Ronin, a digital currency that in one year was worth four euros.

A similar case is that of Antonio Lledó, 45 years old, who had always sought to invest in technology and saw an opportunity in Worldcoin. “Knowing that OpenAI is behind this project is a very good letter of introduction for me,” says this Valencian graphic designer, who in February bought 220 more coins, about 1,700 euros, which in those weeks became 3,000.

On February 29, around 400,000 citizens had their iris scanned in Spain. Adding the 37 countries where Worldcoin operates, the figure rose to 4 million, according to company data. The Reuters agency reported that on the same date the total volume of coins in circulation was equivalent to approximately 600 million euros, five times the initial investment that Worldcoin made to launch the project.

The iris is the most precious biometric data. It is a type of information that allows us to recognize a person with an impeccable level of accuracy and in a sustained manner over time. “And it can be used to impersonate your identity depending on the hands it falls into,” warns Borja Adsuara, an expert in digital law and professor at the Complutense University of Madrid, who does not recommend that users give up this type of information. “Through your gaze and how the pupil dilates, you can tell what someone likes, what scares them, what interests them, and even certain cognitive characteristics, such as whether they have Parkinson’s,” Carissa Véliz told EL PAÍS, professor of philosophy at the University of Oxford and author of the book Privacy is power.

peninsular fury

The days of euphoria were numbered. On March 6, the AEPD brought a blow of authority to the table. The entity had received at least 13 complaints denouncing insufficient information and the collection of data from minors, for which it ordered Tools For Humanity, the company behind the orbs, stop operations in Spain. The worldcoin quickly plummeted by 10%, but the search for these coins did not stop, it only moved from shopping malls to social networks.

“I buy coins and pay through Bizum. All in person and reliable,” could be read in the publications that appeared in cascade on Facebook. Personal accounts also began to be offered for between 40 and 100 euros. Although most cases hid a deception. “They sell you their account and when they have the money they change your password,” explains a Telegram user. “This is a scammer, remove him from the group,” they warned on the messaging platform. And even individuals appeared who promised to multiply your profits if you entered a code. “They waited for people to hack and unknowingly send their coins to other virtual wallets,” says Martín, who had two of his worldcoins scammed.

Others were willing to continue the party further. In some communities you could read: “Trips are being planned to Portugal where you can still have your iris scanned.” Frank Gómez, a taxi driver based in Braga, on the other side of the border, says that an entire bus left Salamanca for the Portuguese capital and that there are people who have traveled the seven hours that separate Gibraltar from Lisbon. Everything to scan your iris. Although the most common, he says, were trips from the northern coast, from cities like Vigo. “Three weeks ago I took a 60-year-old couple from the shopping center to a good restaurant in Braga. “His son had paid for the ticket and the hotel for them to come and photograph his eyes,” he says.

Some suspected that the ban would soon cover the entire Peninsula. “Hurry before they ban it,” warned a user who offered trips from Madrid to Lisbon for 85 euros. “You pay for the gas, that’s all.”

—What if when we arrive they have blocked the service?

—Well, a very big fucking one, man.

Elisa had to save the Orb of Worldcoin the same day the company was banned. “They told us to pick up everything, that we couldn’t continue operating,” she shares sadly. In the Telegram groups almost every day someone asks when the company will operate again in Spain and trips to Lisbon are no longer organized because the neighboring country also banned Worldcoin on March 26. On both sides of the border, the party was over.