Police have dropped a probe they had opened against Worldcoin, the cryptocurrency project by Tools for Humanity.
This is likely to pave the way for its return to Kenya. The revelations of the probe file into various claims against the firm were contained in a letter from the Director of Criminal Investigations to the company.
The company lawyer had on May 21, 2024, written to the DCI to request an update on the status of the case.
A letter dated June 14, 2024, signed by Hilary Kimutai said the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) expeditiously and objectively investigated an array of allegations into the activities of Worldcoin in Kenya in 2022/3 and touching on alleged unlawful collection and transfer of personal sensitive data.
“The resultant investigation file was forwarded to the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions for an independent review and advice.”
“Upon review of the file, the Director of Public Prosecutions concurred and directed that the file be closed with no further police action,” the letter reads.
The DCI advised Worldcoin that for prudent continued operations, they consider proper business registration services in liaison with the Registrar of Business registry and proper licensing and Coordination by the office of the Data Protection Commission (ODPC) and the Communication Authority of Kenya (CAK).
The police also advised them to ensure intensive vetting and legal contracting of all third-party vendors within the country.
The company operations were suspended in Kenya in August 2023 after claims of lack of proper papers to allow them. The company operations director Thomas Scott said they were grateful for the developments.
"We are grateful for the DCI's fair investigation and for the Director of Public Prosecutions' determination to close the matter. This welcome result is, however, not an end but a beginning.”
“We will continue working with the Government of Kenya and others and we hope to resume World ID registration across the country soon. For today, we are just pleased to return our focus to advancing Worldcoin's mission: creating opportunities for people in Kenya and elsewhere to participate in the global economy,” he said.
This comes amid reports that there are talks between the company and government officials for the resumption of business in Kenya.
The Worldcoin project rolled out globally on June 24, 2023. But despite its ambitions of a decentralised global currency, the project was met with privacy issues. There were also 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.
The concerns were heightened by the fact that new members were getting 25 free cryptocurrency tokens known as WLD after the verification, valued at Sh8,256 at the time.
Kenya suspended all activities associated with the crypto project until relevant agencies certify the absence of any security risks.
Following the Worldcoin's suspension, Alex Blania, the project’s CEO who co-founded it with OpenAI boss Altman said they and Tools For Humanity (TFH) were pausing World ID verifications in Kenya to addressing the government’s concerns while optimistic of resuming operations in the country.
TFH is the Germany-based global hardware and software company which led the initial development of the Worldcoin protocol.
“TFH has paused World ID verifications in Kenya as we continue to work with local regulators to address their questions. We apologize to everyone in Kenya for the delay,” Blania said in an August 3 post on X.
“World ID is built for privacy. We look forward to resuming operations while continuing global rollout.”
Interior Cabinet Secretary Kithure Kindiki told the Senate on September 14 2023 that the government was analysing the hardware components OpenAI used to collect data from Kenyans for the project.
Tools For Humanity had two weeks prior said they had been scanning people’s irises in Nairobi and other Kenyan urban centres since 2021 when they were piloting the project.
At the start of September 2023, Worldcoin said more than 635,000 Kenyans had downloaded the crypto app, although 345,000 had not yet verified their identities by scanning their irises.
Close to 5 million people globally have a World ID, the company says on its website, 2.6 million of which were verified.
The project has since updated to World ID 2.0, which, the company says, makes it easier to distinguish between bots and “verified humans” online.
The new version announced supports integrations for its World ID with Minecraft, Reddit, Telegram, Shopify and Mercado Libre.