With the rise of ChatGPT and OpenAI, another cryptocurrency-related project founded by Sam Altman called Worldcoin has also caught people’s attention. What does Worldcoin aim to do? It aims to use blockchain technology to implement Universal Basic Income (UBI), which means unconditionally giving free money to everyone, enough to cover their basic living expenses. This way, the problem of poverty can be solved in one fell swoop. People will no longer worry about their basic needs and can dedicate their time to more meaningful work.
Distributing money is a challenging task. The best method humanity has practiced so far is distributing based on labor. As for distributing based on need, it remains an ideal concept only on paper.
Let’s take the example of economic stimulus. China’s approach is to prioritize large infrastructure projects, employing workers who receive wages based on their work output. This is a distribution based on labor. In the United States, as we have witnessed during the past few years of the pandemic, the approach has been similar to what Bernanke did—helicopter money, providing unconditional cash subsidies to every legitimate citizen. However, this approach led to many people refusing to work, and it also contributed to inflation due to increased consumption.
Regarding poverty alleviation methods, China’s approach in recent years has been focused on supporting industries or establishing factories in impoverished areas to provide employment opportunities. This enables local impoverished populations to have jobs, earn wages, and improve their income levels, ultimately achieving poverty alleviation. The United Nations has been providing aid to underdeveloped areas in Africa for many years, providing funds or donations directly to give money and food, but unfortunately, it has not been successful in helping several African countries escape poverty and become prosperous. Instead, it has benefited intermediaries such as various governments and agencies.
This is the principle of “seeking truth from facts.” It is known that transcending the historical stages of human productivity and production relations is not an easy task. Therefore, it is better to work according to the current situation, starting from small steps and accumulating progress over time, even if we have lofty aspirations.
I think this Sam Altman is not honest. Once ChatGPT became popular and OpenAI seized the opportunity, they quickly sought massive financing. When his reputation soared, Altman brought out a long-dormant project, raised $100 million in funding, and labeled it with idealism to move countless naive investors. I suspect it’s all to quickly launch the cryptocurrency and go public at a favorable price.
Recently, this Altman even appeared at a hearing in the US Congress, where he reportedly received a warm reception. His statement, especially the remark “I have no ownership in OpenAI, I’m just pursuing my ideals,” seems to have deeply moved the members of Congress to tears.
Insert clapping GIF from Leslie Cheung here.
UBI is great. At the very least, it represents an exploration of the future. It is an improvement or revolution in distribution. If it’s an improvement, it will be implemented top-down, with the government distributing money per capita, which is the most efficient approach because the government possesses the most accurate population data. If it’s a revolution, it will be implemented bottom-up, with the masses spontaneously exploring various experiments to find the best methods, which can then be scaled and adopted universally. Worldcoin, driven by capital, doesn’t fit into either category.
To prevent the Sybil attack, Worldcoin extensively collects iris data, which not only violates privacy but also raises doubts about its effectiveness. Where there are interests, people will take risks. They will purchase irises on a large scale in impoverished areas and then manipulate their identities. This is an inevitable outcome. In the end, it will become a game of fleecing naive investors, and World coin, as an intermediary in value transfer, will be able to profit from the money transferred from second-tier market “naive investors” to first-tier market “whales” as long as the transaction volume is high enough. As for where Worldcoin gets its money from, it’s certainly not solely from fleecing second-tier market investors. Its funding sources are worth pondering. Those so-called peace foundations, democratic foundations, and youth leadership foundations in the United States should probably be big customers of Mr. Altman, right?
This is much more stimulating than Axie Infinity, where they fleece second-tier market investors to play that boring game of battling small creatures, and then distribute money to the people in the Philippines and South America. Therefore, it’s probably certain that Worldcoin will never enter the Chinese market.
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