Ethereum Founder Vitalik Buterin Criticizes Surprise Altcoin Severely

The co-founder of Ethereum, Vitalik Buterin, has severely criticized one of the rival altcoins due to privacy concerns.

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin issued serious warnings about Sam Altman's digital identity project, World (WLD, formerly known as Worldcoin).

As World, which has attracted attention with over 13 million registrations of 'unique people', continues to grow in the digital identity space, Buterin stated that such projects could jeopardize online anonymity.

In his article published today, Buterin assessed the potential benefits and harms of digital identity systems that use zero-knowledge proofs (ZK), arguing that systems based on a 'person-by-person identity' model, like World, could threaten the privacy of internet users.

'In a person-by-person identity system, even wrapped in ZK, we run the risk of all your online activities being effectively mapped to a single identity,' Buterin said, noting that eliminating anonymity could have serious negative consequences in an environment of increasing digital threats.

World was developed by Tools for Humanity, a company founded by Sam Altman and Alex Blania. Users prove they are human by scanning their eyes with devices called 'Orbs' and thus receive both a World ID and WLD tokens. The biometric data used in the identity creation process is protected by ZK technology.