TECH CABAL
Kenyans are queuing in shopping malls to scan their iris in exchange for Worldcoin tokens worth 7700 Kenyan Shillings. And crypto firms in Kenya are riding on the coattails of Worldcoin to recruit users who want to change the free tokens to cash.
Last week, Worldcoin, a blockchain company founded in 2019 by Open AI chief, Sam Altman, Max Novendstern, and Alex Blania, launched their iris-scan-for-token orbs globally, after trial runs in Indonesia, Chile, Kenya and 24 other countries. On Wednesday, July 26, two days after the global public launch, Altman tweeted that one person was being “verified” every 8 seconds.
Matthew Amos Ikwap on X (formerly Twitter): “World Coin is having a Kenya “take over” imaging the scenes when it crosses over to Uganda & Tanzania. https://t.co/IjgSoVLvwk / X”
World Coin is having a Kenya “take over” imaging the scenes when it crosses over to Uganda & Tanzania. https://t.co/IjgSoVLvwk
Kenyan crypto firms latch on
After registering and scanning their irises, participants are given 25 Worldcoin tokens. But to convert that token to cash, they have to sell the tokens for USDT (a virtual US dollar) on a crypto exchange that lists Worldcoin’s virtual currency. They can then resell USDT for local currency.
By the end of the first day of launch, each Worldcoin token was worth $2.1 or 299 Kenyan Shillions. Every person who scans their iris on Worldcoin’s shiny orbs gets 25 Worldcoin tokens (or WLD) which is worth an estimated KES7,700 or roughly $54. Data from Take Profit, a data analytics provider puts the average monthly pay of low-wage earners in Kenya at around KES15,000 monthly before tax.
Enterprising crypto firms in Kenya have taken advantage of the crowds being attracted to Worldcoin’s orbs to recruit customers. On Sunday, KotaniPay, a local crypto company tweeted a video inviting people who had scanned their irises at the Kenyatta International Convention Centre to visit their booth to exchange WLD for Kenyan Shillings.
x.com
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