CoinFund talks about the reasons for investing in Worldcoin: In addition to the father of ChatGPT, we also value its unique global vision

Written by: Austin Barack

Compilation: Deep Tide TechFlow

Blockchain technology opens the door to entirely new applications, use cases and forms of global coordination. Launched in 2009, Bitcoin laid the foundation for what is today's Web3. Bitcoin is open to anyone, can be mined or purchased through proof-of-work, and introduces digital, non-sovereign, censorship-resistant money to the world for the first time. Launched in 2015, Ethereum has realized the programmability of blockchain interaction through smart contracts, which eventually gave birth to the development of DeFi, NFT, resource networks, stable coins, payment applications, on-chain games, DAO, etc.

However, despite all these incredible innovations, two elements are needed to complete the puzzle: provable human uniqueness and a global means of equitably distributing network ownership, and in many ways these two reasons are interrelated. This is why we are so fascinated by Worldcoin and the unique vision of its founders.

Worldcoin solves one of the most fundamental problems in decentralized technology by preventing Sybil attacks and removing all negative externalities. CoinFund made its first investment in February 2021 as one of the earliest supporters of Worldcoin, We remain convinced that the innovations of the Worldcoin Network will have a profound impact on global digital coordination and financial inclusion and the entry of billions of people into the crypto economy.

Worldcoin started with a question: How do you prove that you are a unique human being in a digital environment, and do so while maintaining your anonymity and privacy? **There are many reasons for asking this question, but what really sparks this need is how to tell AI from humans as it continues to improve. The answer quickly became apparent that this was as much a hardware issue as it was a network level issue. A device is required to onboard users (register them to non-custodial wallets and distribute network assets), while ensuring that each user can only register once. And it has to be 100% private. Starting from this idea, Worldcoin has developed a state-of-the-art hardware device from scratch that can determine the uniqueness of humans through the only reliable mechanism - iris biometrics.

In less than 30 seconds, the Worldcoin Orb works by taking a grid of a user's individual and unique iris pattern, using a neural network to convert the pattern into a hash (the iris code), and then permanently deleting the original biometric data (the user's iris image). The iris code is not associated with any personal information of the user (nor the user wallet), and is only used to prevent the user from attempting to re-register, as repeated registrations will generate the same iris code. Through this novel access mechanism, a unique personal proof that protects privacy is created.

Why are unique personalities proving so influential?

In a purely digital environment, if it can be demonstrated that the user:

1) are humans and not robots,

2. Participate only once instead of participating through multiple wallets/accounts,

3. No need for users to share government identification or other forms of privately identifiable information,

This can multiply the reach of digitally native interactions. Here are some immediate applications, and many more:

• "One person, one vote" in DAO instead of voting weighted by token ownership. Proof of Reality prevents Sybil attacks where users vote through multiple wallet addresses. Practical results: Token supply can be fairly democratically voted and does not have to be controlled or disrupted by large players in all cases.
• Privacy-preserving authentication of users in social media applications. This would prevent users from creating spam social media accounts without requiring social media companies to require users to verify with mobile phone numbers or other personally identifiable information. Obvious application: Cleaning up bot accounts on Twitter.
• Fair airdrop. When a crypto network distributes network governance assets to early users, it prevents Sybil attacks and prevents unfair airdrop harvesting. Actual result: Customer acquisition is more efficient for the network because they retain more real users.
• Efficiently distribute value globally, not limited to a country's borders, and while protecting users' privacy (their ID proof is not tied to their real-world identity or personal information).

Preserving privacy is a fundamental innovation for the use cases above, and many others to come, that resonates at CoinFund, and we see it as a key factor to support. While there are other similar solutions, we clearly see that Worldcoin's hardware approach has the lowest error rate among these methods.

Fair distribution of network assets globally

Through Worldcoin Orb and World ID to provide a unique personality proof of privacy protection, it is possible to truly realize the fair distribution of digital assets on a global scale. Crypto assets have traditionally been accumulated through asset purchases and/or through network participation. The upshot is that those who bought when prices were lower, or who had more capital to buy more assets, were able to accumulate a larger proportion of the network's assets than later users. ** This dynamic dismotivates later users because they feel they are "late" and keep looking for the next network to engage early on, not necessarily the most useful network. **

Through proof of personality and the Orb as an onboarding mechanism, each Worldcoin user can earn roughly an equal amount of WLD tokens regardless of when they signed up. This means that every user is an "early participant" and all users can have a similar impact on the development and governance of the network. Furthermore, this is not only true for WLD, as a platform, Worldcoin can also be a distribution network for other assets. With this fair launch dynamic, free distribution of network governance tokens that help incentivize user registration, and WorldID with strong authentication capabilities, we believe Worldcoin has the opportunity to introduce billions of users into the crypto space with the benefits of financial inclusion and global connectivity.

It's been two and a half years since we became interested in Worldcoin's ambitious vision. While Worldcoin has attracted over two million users (2,060,888 as of July 23, 2023 and counting), we feel like this is just the beginning. The real-world utility of Worldcoin has the potential to bring the billionth user and more into the crypto space, and we believe it will. Proof of real people while preserving privacy is a fundamentally transformative innovation, coupled with a fair global distribution of web assets, we can't wait to see what the future brings.