A shiny, silver orb shines at you outside a metro station in downtown Santiago. what do you do Create a line, it seems.
According to WorldCoin, more than 200,000 Chileans have had their eyeballs scanned by the controversial orbs. For privacy seekers, this is the next step in the inevitable dystopian future that awaits. But for others, it's a little free money.
Carlos Santibanez, a 29-year-old Chilean from the small town of Lanquihu, told Decrypt that he scanned his eyeballs in September 2022. At that time, the WLD token had no monetary value. Since then, however, he has deposited over $150 and continues to receive WLD tokens.
He pointed out something often overlooked by Worldcoin critics. “After doing a bit of reading, I found the data collection to be less invasive than what other companies put in place,” he said. This made me think: ‘Well, at least I'm doing something with this information.'
Santibanez pointed to big-name investors backing WorldCoin as collateral for the project's direction. “I didn't want to give up on WorldCoin as it was such a big project,” he said.
Scanning your eyeballs while typing will earn you 25 WLD tokens, worth roughly $42, according to Koinenko.
That's a real change in some countries, like Chile. The minimum wage in the world's longest country is $512 (or 460,000 Chilean pesos). Accepting 8% of their monthly salary just to scan their eyeballs might be too good to pass up.
Worldcoin has seen success in emerging economies with similar numbers to Chile. According to the company, Argentina, which is plagued by high inflation, recorded one day every nine seconds in August.
Across the Atlantic in Africa, Kenya also saw incredibly long lines, with local media reporting more than 350,000. Those figures aren't entirely surprising in a country where the minimum wage is barely $100 a month.
Kenyan authorities have suspended Worldcoin operations, citing privacy concerns.
Back in Chile, others are simply signing up for the novelty.
Javier Santellis, a 25-year-old Chilean student, told Decrypt that a crypto-skeptic walked past the stall and decided to give it a try. “I never really understood crypto,” he said. “They were giving money, so why not?”
Santibanez agrees that people get most of their data collected secretly by other companies. “This is no different than what everyone else is doing on the Internet,” he said.
The controversial Worldcoin project has not seen widespread regulatory pressure in Chile, despite the company's already impressive numbers. The country is known for its economic independence and growing technology scene. It's also at the forefront of AI in the region, ranking first in Latin America's artificial intelligence index (or ILIA, as it's called in Spanish).
The fact that 1% of the population has signed up for Worldcoin has been somewhat shocking.
Francisco Díaz, a Chilean anthropologist who studies DAOs, said: “I find it curious that people label the crypto world as a scam.
Diaz has been actively involved in talentDAO, which understands how these types of organizations work, for two and a half years. He told Decrypt how Dao's were created, abandoning the “old formula” of issuing governance tokens without even considering their importance.
Referring to his own country, Diaz thinks Worldcoin's success is “probably due to the economic stimulus.” And considering the country's low wages, he concluded, “it's not a small amount of money.”
