30s Summary

Worldcoin, a crypto project that collected biometric data in exchange for tokens, has faced global lawsuits for failing to protect user data. Airchains CEO, Ankur Rakhi Sinha, criticised the company’s lack of transparency and misuse of biometric data. He urged the crypto industry to leverage encryption technologies for data protection, highlighting the potential of combining Fully Homomorphic Encryption and ZK-proofs. Sinha also noted the importance of decentralized systems and warned against trusting private companies with private information. Despite existing security measures, he emphasized on devising diverse strategies to protect privacy.

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Hey, it’s Ankur Rakhi Sinha, co-founder and CEO of Airchains. I wanted to talk about Worldcoin, which was renamed to ‘World’ in late 2024. They faced lawsuits globally because they couldn’t protect user data. They were collecting scans of your eye and face in exchange for digital ID and free tokens, and a lot of governments weren’t cool with that and blocked them. Right now, it feels like we can’t really keep user data safe until after stuff hits the fan.

You know Worldcoin. It was one of those wild concepts in the crypto world that got tons of money because it was the “next cool thing.” But let’s be honest, we can’t all follow this example. We need to make a system that’s good from the start and won’t have the same privacy issues as Worldcoin.

Hey, cryptocurrency fans, hear me out. Let’s keep dreaming big but also remember we have amazing encryption technologies that will help keep our biometric data safe. We all need to feel safe and confident about our privacy. Not just you and me, but everyone.

What went wrong with Worldcoin? The problem starts with its black box kind of operation. Worldcoin was this closed system built on Ethereum, only the insiders could become a node or a link on their network. We all know how this usually ends, right? It’s more likely to be hacked cause it lacks transparency. Plus, it’s kinda rude to keep things secret from the open-source community.

Fancy tech shouldn’t be used by private companies to create these walled gardens, it’s against the whole idea of decentralization. And biometric data should definitely not be stashed away from public view.

There was a lot of excitement around Worldcoin because it was based on ZKsync, which uses zero-knowledge proofs. These can verify data is correct without seeing what it is. But even though we all hoped it would protect our privacy, it doesn’t solve the problem of data storage.

Even though Worldcoin admitted to collecting way too much data (red flag, anyone?) and promised to delete it after training their models, they still managed to have a data leak scandal. So much for the zero-knowledge proof protection!

After the Worldcoin drama, Fractal ID came out with a way to protect biometric data that’s working pretty well. But they had a huge data breach in 2024, which shows us we need to keep finding new ways to protect this valuable data. Trust me, we can do it.

One way to do it is combining the latest in encryption (like Fully Homomorphic Encryption or FHE) with ZK-proofs. This way, we don’t need to trust people like Worldcoin’s Altman and Co with our private information. This combination can prevent centralized vulnerabilities (that’s where the hackers love to hang out) and make sure our data is secure even when it’s being used for verification or authentication.

Even though ZK-proofs and FHE sound like sci-fi stuff, they are both already being used in real-world cases. The best part is, they could help us make blockchain record-keeping really scalable.

Even though onchain biometric IDs can be useful, we can do even better. We need multiple ways to keep our privacy safe or else there will always be a way for hackers to mess things up.

Before I step off my soapbox, just a bit about me. I’m co-founder and CEO of Airchains, a company creating a multichain privacy network using ZK and FHE. Before starting Airchains, I was an engineer at Matic and Polygon Edge, designing use case solutions in India. Oh, and just to show how much I love this stuff, I was using my engineering degree in my spare time to mine Ethereum.

Just remember: all of this is my personal take and shouldn’t be taken as legal or investment advice. Stay safe, crypto fans!