Digital strategist Dennis Itumbi has expressed his determination to advocate for the reinstatement of the controversial cryptocurrency project, Worldcoin, in Kenya.
The project, co-founded by Sam Altman, CEO of the American Artificial Intelligence company OpenAI, was suspended in Kenya on August 2, 2023, due to data security concerns amidst a surge in adoption in Nairobi.
“Itumbi believes that the project will help upscale the financial muscle of the youth who have massively taken up the digital domains to eke out a living,” a statement said.
“I am going to put up a fight in all the relevant tables to ensure Worldcoin comes back to Kenya,” he asserted while addressing students at Mount Kenya University (MKU) on Saturday.
“Before it was banned it was only Ksh.7. Today it is Ksh.48. In a year I foresee it going to around Ksh.1000/2,000 bob.”
On December 14, 2023, a source from the government exclusively intimated that an agreement had been reached to allow the US-based firm to resume operations under new guidelines.The Worldcoin project rolled out globally on June 24.
But despite its ambitions of a decentralised global currency, the project was met with privacy concerns and questions about the security of the biodata the company was collecting from Kenyans.
The verification process involved scanning one’s eyeballs through an Orb in exchange for a digital identity called World ID and thereafter get 25 free cryptocurrency tokens known as WLD, valued at Ksh.8,256 at the time.
The government stopped all activities associated with the crypto project until relevant agencies certify the absence of any security risks.
