Police have dispersed thousands of Kenyans who had lined up at the Kenyatta International Convention Center (KICC) to register for the Worldcoin cryptocurrency project.
Officials cited security concerns as the reason for stopping the exercise that has been going on for a few days.
With the current high cost of living, lack of jobs, and stagnated salaries, Kenyans are jumping on the opportunity of earning free money which has been provided by the newest global fever, Worldcoin.
Worldcoin was launched on June 24, and every registered member was gifted 25 tokens, also known as WLD. The registration is by scanning eyeballs and getting the free tokens which are then converted into money.
Whoever scans their iris using a unique eye-scanning machine known as Orb gets the tokens which are an equivalent of $54 or Sh7,700.
The payment is however being done in form of cryptocurrency.
The Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) has previously issued notices giving caution to Kenyans on the use of digital forms of currency. According to the CBK, digital currencies, e.g., Bitcoins are a form of un-regulated digital currency that is not issued or guaranteed by any government or central bank.
Surprisingly, roughly 8.5% of the Kenyan population or 4.25 million people own cryptocurrencies, ranking the nation fifth in the world in global adoption of crypto, according to a report by the United Nations. The Finance Bill 2023, defines the term cryptocurrency as a “digital asset.”
