Thousands of Kenyans who had turned up at the Kenyatta International Conference Centre (KICC) for the Worldcoin registration have been turned away.
Police dismissed the crowd after the government stopped the exercise due to security concerns. The police advised the Worldcoin team to find larger venues, such as the Nyayo or Kasarani Stadiums, where they can conduct the exercise without posing security risks to critical government structures.
The team is set to communicate a new venue for the exercise by Wednesday. Worldcoin is a new global cryptocurrency championed by American Artificial Intelligence (AI) company OpenAI.
Worldcoin launch aims to increase Economic Opportunity and enable Global Democratic processes
The registration exercise involves scanning of one’s eyeballs in exchange for a digital identity called World ID.New members receive 25 free cryptocurrency tokens, known as WLD, valued at Sh7,786, after the exercise.
The purpose of eye-scanning, according to the company, is to verify that those utilizing the platform are real human beings.
Thousands of Kenyans have been turning up every day as early as 6 am to have their eyes scanned and at least get the token to sustain them, given the high cost of living.
According to the company, over 350,000 Kenyans have so far signed up for Worldcoin since its launch on Monday last week.
On Friday, the Office of the Data Protection Commissioner (ODPC) warned Kenyans against sharing their personal information with the cryptocurrency company over data safety concerns.
