• Worldcoin has confirmed that over 200,000 Chileans have verified their World ID, this represents 1 percent of the total population.
• Though adoption is still on the rise, the project faces great criticism over privacy and its data collection.

A blog post shared by the WorldCoin team has confirmed that more than 200,000 people in Chile have signed up for its global identity protocol, World ID. With a total population of 19.5M residents, the figure represents over 1 percent of the population. Launched in July 2023 in the South American country, the project has received great support in the region.

As the project expands its foothold in South America, the team has announced project contributors at Tools for Humanity (TFH) have recently started operations in Vina del Mar and Concepcion. The new stations will be in addition to the already established operations in Chile’s capital Santiago.

Worldcoin project co-founder and CEO of Tools for Humanity Alex Blania recently spoke on the Ethereum Argentina Mainnet Stage, of the of the project’s scaled-up global engagement and growth in South America. The co-founder spoke of the positive response in the region and the understanding of the fundamental principles of crypto by the people. “It’s a combination of having a very technologically advanced country in general and then also a crypto-forward country specifically, which makes it an explosive building ground for the next wave of innovation in this space,” Blania added.

As CNF reported last month, Worldcoin introduced an authentication reservation feature as part of its plans to onboard more users. This new feature would enable users to reserve Worldcoin (WLD) tokens without needing verification. According to the report, users will be able to claim their tokens after the reservation remains active for a year.

Read More: Worldcoin Unveils Authentication Reservation Feature with Iris Scan for World ID

Worldcoin Data Collection Raises Alarms

Even as the project celebrates adoption in some countries, in some parts of the world, Worldcoin faces criticism and legal battles. In Kenya, the project has recently been shut down pending investigations of its legality to operate in the country and biometrics and data collection privacy concerns. Similarly, the Argentina government is also looking into the project with the Argentine Agency for Access to Public Information (AAIP) calling on the team behind the project to provide detailed information on its data processing policy.

France and Germany are also looking into Worldcoin’s data collection process with an aim to ensure that collected data is safeguarded.

Despite these issues, the project that was founded in 2019 by OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman continues to build, recently undertaking an extensive update geared towards improving the performance of its blockchain. The Worldcoin core developers announced the completion of a network upgrade that helps reduce the overall load on Ethereum’s Optimism by about two-thirds.

Read More: Worldcoin’s Game-Changing Update Reduces Transaction Costs and Boosts Optimism