152. Mr. Worldcoin and the Orb (ft. Richard Nieva)

We’re joined by Richard Nieva, reporter at Buzzfeed, who, along with his colleague Aman Sethi, just published a massive investigation into Worldcoin, a company that aims to distribute crypto to people around the world in exchange for having their eyes scanned by an ominous biometrics device called the Orb. We discuss the long list of major issues with Worldcoin’s operations—including faulty technology, delayed payments, labor exploitation, colonialist extraction, and much more—as uncovered by Richard and Aman’s reporting. Follow Richard: https://twitter.com/richardjnieva Follow Aman: https://twitter.com/Amannama Articles we discuss: ••• “What Did You Do With Our Eyes”: This Startup Promised People Free Crypto If They Scanned Their Eyeballs. Now People Feel They've Been Scammed | Richard Nieva, Aman Sethi https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/richardnieva/worldcoin-crypto-eyeball-scanning-orb-problems ••• Deception, exploited workers, and cash handouts: How Worldcoin recruited its first half a million test users | Eileen Guo, Adi Renaldi https://www.technologyreview.com/2022/04/06/1048981/worldcoin-cryptocurrency-biometrics-web3/ ••• Crypto Startup That Wants to Scan Everyone’s Eyeballs Is Having Some Trouble | Ellen Huet https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-03-16/worldcoin-the-eyeball-scanning-crypto-unicorn-hits-signup-snags Subscribe to hear more analysis and commentary in our premium episodes every week! patreon.com/thismachinekills Grab fresh new TMK gear: bonfire.com/store/this-machine-kills-podcast/ Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (twitter.com/jathansadowski) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (twitter.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (twitter.com/braunestahl)