Kenya Suspends Worldcoin Operations

Kenya's Ministry of the Interior has taken significant action by suspending the operations of Worldcoin, a prominent identity crypto protocol co-founded by Sam Altman of OpenAI.

The suspension comes while the country's financial, security, and data protection services delve into the legitimacy and data protection aspects of the project.

Minister Kithure Kindiki expressed the government's concern regarding the organization's activities related to the collection of citizens' eyeball/iris data.

This suspension was announced in a statement posted on the Ministry's Facebook page on Wednesday.

Worldcoin's primary goal is to establish a global identification mechanism based on iris scans, offering a way to verify that an agent is indeed human and unique.

However, the collection of biometric data and the signup process, especially in developing countries, have sparked criticism and allegations of exploitation.

Coinlive has previously reported on how the attention and impact of Worldcoin drew the attention of European regulators, with several conducting investigations into the protocol.

However, no action has been made during this investigation.

Kenya's suspension sets a precedent, making it the first country to completely act on Worldcoin's operations while local agencies undertake a thorough investigation.