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Welcome back to Chain Reaction.
do you have coin No? Well, Worldcoin did.
Tools for Humanity, the team building Worldcoin, has raised $115 million in a Series C round led by Blockchain Capital.
The crypto-focused project was co-founded by Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, with a three-fold mission: create a global ID, a global currency, and an app that enables payment, purchases, and transfers using its token – along with other cryptocurrencies and traditional assets.
Worldcoin has faced some concerns from people worried about privacy risks because it has to scan a billion people’s eyeballs with a five-pound chromatic sphere called “The Orb” in exchange for its token.
“For good reason, people get concerned and sensitive when it comes to biometrics — especially when you add a dose of crypto,” Spencer Bogart, general partner at Blockchain Capital, wrote in a post Wednesday.
“However, what actually happens under the hood is that the orb takes a picture of an iris and the device then generates a unique encoding of the randomness of the iris (an ‘iris code’),” added Bogart . “By default, the original biometric is immediately destroyed and the iris code is the only thing that leaves the orb.”
Although the public may be reluctant, investors are still diving into the project as it is one of the few crypto companies still receiving hefty amounts of capital amid an ongoing bear market.
Other investors in the Series C round include a16z, Bain Capital Crypto and Distributed Global. In March 2022, Worldcoin raised $100 million at a $3 billion valuation.
In 2021, Worldcoin CEO Alex Blania told TechCrunch that the currency is part of a larger effort to drive a more unified and fair global economy driven by the Internet economy, something that cryptocurrencies in particular do not caught on in their first few years.
The latest increase will go towards bot detection, research and development and the expansion of its Worldcoin project and application. Worldcoin is currently in beta testing and has onboarded approximately two million users across five continents.
Bogart and Blockchain Capital believe that Worldcoin can become the biggest on-ramp to crypto and the World App can become the most accepted crypto wallet. All of this is TBD.
This week in web3
Arrington Capital-backed group to acquire Celsius assets
After a bankruptcy proceeding, the assets of failed crypto lender Celsius Network are about to be acquired by a consortium called Fahrenheit. Behind this name you will find a group of bidders led by the investment firm Arrington Capital. The other members of the consortium are the crypto mining company US Bitcoin Corp., Proof Group, Steven Kokinos and Ravi Kaza.
Check out Wolf’s First Batch of Bitcoin-Driven Startups (TC+)
In Wolf’s Clothing (Wolf), a startup accelerator launched by asset management firm Stone Ridge, aims to strengthen Bitcoin-focused applications and use cases. Its first cohort, Wolfpack 1, consisted of eight teams and 23 founders from 10 countries, and they presented their ideas during a demo day on Wednesday, covered exclusively by TechCrunch+.
Montenegro court overturns Terraform founder Do Kwon’s bail
A Supreme Court in Montenegro overturned a lower court’s previous ruling that would have released Terraform Labs founder Do Kwon on bail. The ruling comes almost two weeks after Montenegro’s basic court agreed to release the detainee Kwon and his former colleague Chang-joon Han on bail.
Mastercard sees ‘a lot of promise’ in blockchain technology if security and simplicity are prioritized (TC+)
While the web3 world has seen a significant influx of capital, innovation and talent, more work is needed to ensure that traditional players – as well as new ones – can enter the ecosystem with confidence. “People look at crypto and think of it as an investment, but there is a whole sector that is much more useful for financial industries as a whole,” said Raj Dhamodharan, Mastercard’s EVP and head of crypto and blockchain, during a blockchain-focused panel said at the company’s North America Innovation Day event. “The technology itself holds a lot of promise.”
Solana Launches ChatGPT Plugin To Help Users Communicate With Its Network (TC+)
As the artificial intelligence market continues to heat up, a number of crypto players — big and small — are jumping in. The Solana Foundation, the nonprofit behind the layer-1 blockchain Solana, has officially integrated AI into its network with a ChatGPT plug-in developed by Solana Labs, the team exclusively told TechCrunch+. (Solana Labs is the team building products and tools for the blockchain.)
The newest pod
For last week’s episode, Jacquelyn interviewed Sergey Nazarov, co-founder of Chainlink, a protocol that provides an oracle network to power smart contracts.
Chainlink is also known as a web3 services platform that connects people, businesses and data to the world of web3. And for good reason – it has enabled over $7 trillion in transaction volume across DeFi, gaming, NFTs and other major industries.
Before co-founding Chainlink, Nazarov co-founded four other businesses, most recently SmartContract – which focused on smart contracts.
We discussed a number of things around smart contracts, oracle networks, cross-chain interoperability and Nazarov’s long-term vision for Chainlink.
We also looked at:
Unexpected Smart Contract Use Cases Cryptographic Guarantees How Traditional Companies Can Tokenize Assets AI and Blockchain Technology CCIP Updates
Subscribe to Chain Reaction on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite pod platform to keep up with the latest episodes, and please leave us a review if you like what you hear!
Follow the money
Dispersion Capital Launches $40M Fund Focused on Decentralized Infrastructure Decentralized Science Startup LabDAO Raises $3.6M Openfort Raises $3M to Make “Frictionless” Crypto Accounts for Gamers Institutional-Focused Digital Assets Platform PYOR Raises $4M in App Automation platform Fastlane raises $2.3 million
This list was compiled with information from Messari as well as TechCrunch’s own reporting.
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Disclaimer for Uncirculars, with a Touch of Personality:
While we love diving into the exciting world of crypto here at Uncirculars, remember that this post, and all our content, is purely for your information and exploration. Think of it as your crypto compass, pointing you in the right direction to do your own research and make informed decisions.
No legal, tax, investment, or financial advice should be inferred from these pixels. We’re not fortune tellers or stockbrokers, just passionate crypto enthusiasts sharing our knowledge.
And just like that rollercoaster ride in your favorite DeFi protocol, past performance isn’t a guarantee of future thrills. The value of crypto assets can be as unpredictable as a moon landing, so buckle up and do your due diligence before taking the plunge.
Ultimately, any crypto adventure you embark on is yours alone. We’re just happy to be your crypto companion, cheering you on from the sidelines (and maybe sharing some snacks along the way). So research, explore, and remember, with a little knowledge and a lot of curiosity, you can navigate the crypto cosmos like a pro!
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