Vitalik Buterin vs. World ID: Sam Altman Wants to Kill Internet Anonymity

By Emir Abyazov

Vitalik Buterin sounds the alarm: OpenAI co-founder Sam Altman’s Project World could wipe out pseudonymity, the very quality that keeps the online space free and safe for millions of users.

Source: vitalik.eth.limo

The Ethereum co-founder was blunt about the risks of digital identity projects that utilize zero-knowledge proofs. While such initiatives have their pros, Buterin sees them as a serious threat to anonymity.

One ID — one problem

“Under one-per-person ID, even if ZK-wrapped, we risk coming closer to a world where all of your activity must de facto be under a single public identity,” Buterin wrote. 

He added, “In a world of growing risk (eg. drones), taking away the option for people to protect themselves through pseudonymity has significant downsides.”

What is this ominous World that has one of the crypto space’s most influential thinkers so concerned? It’s a digital identity project developed by Tools for Humanity, a company founded by Altman and CEO Alex Blania.

Users scan their irises with silver spheres called Orbs to prove they are human. In return, they receive a World ID and a bonus in the form of WLD tokens.

Does that sound incredible? Indeed, it does. But the project already has more than 13 million “unique people” in its database.

Biometrics vs. privacy

The biometric data collected by these futuristic devices is protected by ZK technologies—those same zero-knowledge proofs. This allows you to prove something, such as that you’re human, without revealing the underlying data (your real identity).

Buterin admits that such initiatives are gaining momentum. He mentions not only World ID but also projects in the European Union and Taiwan. This looks like a global trend.

At first glance, things look enticing. One of the main benefits of World ID is its ability to distinguish humans from bots and artificial intelligence agents. 

“On the surface, widespread adoption of ZK-wrapped digital ID seems like it would be a great victory for d/acc, protecting our social media, voting, and all kinds of internet services against manipulation from sybils and bots, all without compromising on privacy,” Buterin notes.

Source: vitalik.eth.limo

But there is a nuance. To use pseudonymity, you need to be able to create and manage multiple email addresses and social media accounts. ZK projects like World could jeopardize anonymity if strictly enforced.

Goodbye multipersonality

In such a world, social networking applications would simply use one application-specific ID for each user, and since the ID system works on a one-per-person basis, each user would only be able to have one account (as opposed to so-called ‘weak IDs’ like Google accounts today, where it’s perfectly feasible for the average person to have ~5 accounts), Buterin explains.

Source: imgflip.com

This is a serious blow to internet freedom. Today, you can be a serious analyst on LinkedIn, an anonymous critic of authority on X, and a hilarious meme-maker on TikTok. Tomorrow, it’s just one identity across all platforms.

The world, meanwhile, is gaining momentum. The project recently launched in the U.S. and plans to launch a Visa card. Moreover, they have a pilot program with Tinder in Japan, which should give users more clarity about whom they are chatting with on the dating app.

For months after its launch, World drew criticism from privacy advocates around the world. However, the project is now clearly gaining traction.

An alternative to uniformity

Instead of a unified “one ID per person” ZK system, Buterin proposes a pluralistic model. No one—neither a person, nor an institution, nor a platform—should have sole control over the issuance of digital IDs.

This is reasonable. A monopoly on identity is a monopoly on freedom. Freedom, as we know, does not tolerate monopolists.

The dispute between Buterin and World is not just a technical dispute. It is a fundamental question about the future of the Internet: a place where you can be different, or a digital prison with one identity for life.

Source:: Vitalik Buterin vs. World ID: Sam Altman Wants to Kill Internet Anonymity