Worldcoin misses its 2023 goal of one billion users by 994 million

Worldcoin is 994 million users away from its goal of onboarding one billion people by 2023 and will need to scan an estimated 2,734 people each day to hit this figure by 2026.

Worldcoin announced yesterday, July 10th, that it has verified 6 million users since its launch in July 2023. However, in October 2021, numerous outlets reported that Worldcoin had aimed to onboard one billion users by the end of 2023. It’s now July 2024.

Semafor reported last April that Worldcoin was suffering an orb shortage and that it has between 300 and 500 orbs in use.

Worldcoin was founded by OpenAI’s Sam Altman and is owned by Tools for Humanity. Image sourced from Semafor.

Assuming it has 500 orbs in operation, Worldcoin would have to scan the eyes of 2,740 people per day to reach one billion users in two years. Taking into account the already onboarded 6 million users, 500 orbs would need to scan 2,734 people per day.

Worldcoin claims it has manufactured 2,000 orbs already. Using this figure, each orb would need to scan roughly 700 people per day in order to hit 1 billion in two years.

Worldcoin extends grants amid global restrictions

Worldcoin also extended its WLD token grant reservation program yesterday for another year. Users without a verified World ID initially had until July 2024 to reserve tokens that could then be redeemed at a later date.

Read more: Worldcoin fails to shift ban from Spanish court

Indeed Worldcoin is still unavailable to users in the US, China, India, and the UK. Worldcoin has struggled to onboard users globally as regions began restricting the orbs and opening up investigations. Most of Europe and Hong Kong are probing Worldcoin.

However, in Kenya and South Korea operations have restarted after previous investigations into the orb were dropped. Worldcoin is still available in Germany where the orbs are reportedly manufactured in one factory.

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