Worldcoin signs up over 9K users in Argentina in a single day despite criticism

cointelegraph.com:

Human ID project Worldcoin signed up over 9,500 users in Argentina in a single day in August, setting a record for single-day signups. To achieve this feat, facilitators onboarded participants at an average rate of less than nine seconds per person, according to an Aug. 31 announcement from the project.

Argentina is one of the world’s leading countries for blockchain innovation & crypto adoption. That reputation was reinforced recently, as demand for World ID led to 9.5K Orb verifications in 24 hours—a new global record. https://t.co/DEMx1Yda2O

Argentina has Worldcoin facilitators in 38 different locations, according to the project’s website. Most locations are in the country’s capital city of Buenos Aires.

Worldcoin is a blockchain-based project that allows individuals to prove they're human by having their irises scanned. When a user verifies their humanness, they are given a “World ID” that can be integrated into future applications to prove they are not a bot or artificial intelligence program. The project was founded by OpenAI co-founder Sam Altman, who argued that human IDs would be needed in the future as artificial AI programs become more sophisticated and less distinguishable from humans.

Worldcoin launched on July 25 and almost immediately came under criticism from data privacy advocates. Critics claimed that it is too centralized and could easily leak users’ biometric data, leading to negative consequences for users.

In their Aug. 31 post, the team claimed that many Argentinians are signing up for World IDs anyway, despite the controversy. “There was a significant increase in demand for World ID verifications in countries around the world [after launch],” they stated. This “continued into August, which saw 9.5K