Worldcoin's World ID verification launches in Austria, increasing access to its eyeball-scanning orbs in Europe

Quick Take
- The Worldcoin Foundation has launched World ID orb verification in Austria, increasing access to its “proof of humanness” technology in Europe.
- Austria joins neighboring Germany in Worldcoin’s orb rollout, though the project has faced regulatory challenges in Spain and Portugal in recent months.


The Worldcoin Foundation announced the launch of World ID orb verifications in Austria on Wednesday, increasing access to its “proof of humanness” technology in Europe.
The eyeball-scanning orbs are available at multiple locations in the Austrian capital of Vienna, enabling anyone over 18 to join the 6.3 million people the Worldcoin Foundation claims are already participating in the Worldcoin network by verifying their World ID.
The Worldcoin project aims to ensure the future health of the internet by distinguishing between human and non-human actors. It assigns World IDs to individuals who prove their humanity through an iris scan and rewards them with WLD tokens.
Austria joins neighboring Germany in Worldcoin’s orb rollout. However, the project hasn’t always seen eye-to-eye with regulators across the continent. Spain extended its ban on Worldcoin last month to the end of the year or until a GDPR audit is complete. Portugal also ordered the project to temporarily halt biometric data collection in March. Several other government agencies have scrutinized the Worldcoin project due to concerns related to the protection of personal data.
“In a 2024 survey in Spain, 82% of the 21,000 World ID holders who responded agreed that technologies such as Worldcoin/World ID are important for distinguishing between humans and bots online (13% were unsure),” the Worldcoin Foundation said in a blog post on Wednesday. “Similarly, in Portugal, more than 3 in 4 (77%) of the 19,000 World ID holders who responded agree that Worldcoin can have a positive impact on their digital interactions (13% were unsure),” it added, claiming similar findings in Worldcoin’s Latin American markets.
Taking measures to address data privacy concerns
Worldcoin has been primarily developed and promoted by contributor Tools for Humanity, co-founded by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. In recent months, Tools for Humanity took measures to assure data privacy advocates that Worldcoin takes the protection of users' biometric data seriously.
In March, Worldcoin rolled out "Personal Custody," an initiative that prohibits new signups from requesting to have their biometric data stored and encrypted. The project subsequently announced that people who had previously signed up could request Worldcoin to delete the numeric “iris code” created when their eyeballs were scanned. Worldcoin also implemented a measure to prevent people under 18 from signing up.
Worldcoin’s upcoming Layer 2 network
Earlier this month, the Worldcoin Foundation released a developer preview of its own Layer 2, World Chain, allowing developers to build, test and provide feedback on the network before its mainnet launch, expected later this summer.
The preview also allows developers to set up their deployments ahead of the migration of Worldcoin’s World App users from its existing base on OP Mainnet. The project claims that Worldcoin user transactions have grown to more than 50% of OP Mainnet’s activity since it launched in July 2023. World Chain is intended to be permissionless, open source and independently governed by its community, the Worldcoin Foundation said at the time.
First announced in April, the World Chain is secured by Ethereum within the Superchain network of Layer 2 chains built using the OP Stack.
Worlcoin's token is currently trading for $2.22, according to The Block's WLD price page, down 3% over the past 24 hours.
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