Former NSA Snowden criticized 'Don't catalog your eyes' for a system that 'scans human irises and provides virtual currency'

Worldcoin , an American startup aiming to issue global digital currencies, announced that it has developed a system 'Orb ' that provides free virtual currencies based on scanned iris data. In response, former NSA ( National Security Agency ) officer Edward Snowden criticized 'don't catalog your eyes.'

Edward Snowden Slams Sam Altman's Worldcoin:'Don't Catalog Eyeballs' --Decrypt
https://decrypt.co/84277/snowden-slams-sam-altman-worldcoin-eyeball-scan-for-crypto

Worldcoin is a company founded by entrepreneur Sam Altman, co-founder of startup accelerator Y Combinator and CEO of AI research organization OpenAI. 'Orb' announced by Worldcoin is to generate a hash from the result of scanning the iris and distribute the virtual currency provided by Worldcoin in exchange for this hash.

The specific procedure up to the distribution of Worldcoin's virtual currency is as follows.

1: The user generates a public key with a dedicated smartphone application.
2: Present the QR code with the converted public key to the Orb device.
3: When performing an iris scan on an Orb device, a unique hash is generated from the iris scan on the device.
4: The device sends the 'public key presented by the user' and the 'hash derived from the scan result' to the online system.
5: The system verifies the Orb signature and then checks the database for iris scan-derived hashes.
6: Send virtual currency to the user's wallet for free based on the registered public key.

Below is a photo of a device that scans the iris with Orb and generates a hash, published by Altman on Twitter.

Introducing Worldcoin, a new cryptocurrency that will be distributed fairly to as many people as possible.

Details about how it works: https://t.co/DLcAmUA4u3 pic.twitter.com/xC3W2U6Xi3

— Sam Altman (@sama) October 21, 2021

Worldcoin said, 'Worldcoin accounts are anonymous and use an open source zero-knowledge proof system rather than direct biometrics to process iris scan-derived hashes and user accounts without a unique link. The database only stores the hash and public key, so the iris scan hash and the individual user cannot be linked. In addition, the iris scan data will be discarded on the spot.

However, Snowden pointed out that the hash generated by the scan is unique to the scan data, and creating a database of hashes makes it meaningless to discard the scan data as a result. He criticized 'Don't catalog the eyeballs'.

This looks like it produces a global (hash) database of people's iris scans (for 'fairness'), and waves away the implications by saying 'we deleted the scans!'

Yeah, but you save the * hashes * produced by the scans. Hashes that match * future * scans.

Don't catalog eyeballs. https://t.co/uAk0NYGeZu

— Edward Snowden (@Snowden) October 23, 2021

''Using zero-knowledge proofs' is great and clever, but Worldcoin's method is still bad. The human body is different from ticket-checking scissors,' Snowden said. I am.

'We use ZK-proofs!'

Great, clever. Still bad.

The human body is not a ticket-punch.

— Edward Snowden (@Snowden) October 23, 2021