I will fight to bring Worldcoin back - Dennis Itumbi

The crypto project co-founded by Sam Altman, CEO of the American Artificial Intelligence company OpenAI was suspended in Kenya on August 2, 2023 over data security concerns amid a hysterical uptake 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.

"I am going to put up a fight in all the relevant tables to ensure Worldcoin comes back to Kenya," he said while speaking to 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.

"Worldcoin is working directly with regulators to meet Kenya's requirements, particularly as the Assembly considers new regulations. Stipends will remain and will expand to locations across the country," the source told Citizen Digital.

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.