Kenyan Police Raid Worldcoin's Nairobi Warehouse: Reports
Worldcoin Launches Mainnet with Live WLD Token
Kenyan police conducted a swift raid on Saturday at Worldcoin's Nairobi warehouse, seizing crucial documents and cutting-edge machinery, according to reports by local news organizations on Monday.
According to media reports, Immaculate Kassait, the commissioner of Kenya's Office of the Data Protection, stated that Tools for Humanity, the parent company of Worldcoin, did not fully disclose its true intentions when registering in Kenya. As a result, a police team took the data of Worldcoin to the Directorate of Criminal Investigations headquarters for further analysis.
Worldcoin, co-founded by Sam Altman, the tech entrepreneur who also serves as the CEO of OpenAI, the company responsible for the widely-used artificial intelligence tool ChatGPT, endeavors to revolutionize internet user verification. Their innovative approach involves utilizing iris scans, artificial intelligence, and zero-knowledge proofs to ascertain the authenticity and uniqueness of users. Once verified, users can be rewarded with grants of the Worldcoin token. Furthermore, the platform allows developers to create applications that integrate this cutting-edge identification protocol and include a wallet for distributing the Worldcoin token.
Following the project's introduction in July, users were eligible to receive airdrops of the Worldcoin token as compensation for participating in scanning activities. However, it is currently encountering challenges in Kenya.
"The officers backed by multi-agency officials went to the offices along Mombasa Road armed with a search warrant and broke in Saturday before leaving with machines they believe stores data gathered by the firm," media outlet Kahawatungu reported.
The raid was allegedly carried out under Kussait's oversight. A spokesperson from the Office of Data Protection Commissioner (ODPC) informed CoinCryptoUs that they had no knowledge of such an operation.
Last week, the Ministry of the Interior decided to halt the project's operations in the country, despite the assurance from Kenya's Minister for the Digital Economy, Eliud Owalo, that the ODPC (Office of Data Protection Commissioner) had been in communication with Worldcoin since April and had determined that the project was in compliance with Kenya's data-protection laws. However, later in the same week, the ODPC released a statement expressing "a number of legitimate regulatory concerns" after conducting a preliminary review of the project. As a result, authorities in the United Kingdom, France, and Germany are also conducting investigations into the Worldcoin project.
Worldcoin failed to promptly respond to a comment request. According to data on CoinMarketCap, Worldcoin's token (WLD) remained stagnant over a 24-hour period at $2.07.
