Worldcoin says Singapore is not investigating its crypto project

Just days after Singaporean authorities announced an investigation into several people for their activities linked to Worldcoin – the controversial cryptocurrency project co-founded by OpenAI’s Sam Altman – the firm claims it is not the subject of a Singaporean governmental investigation.

“Neither Worldcoin nor Tools for Humanity are under investigation by police in Singapore," the company told crypto media outlet The Defiant . "Individuals being investigated by authorities for possible violation of the Payment Services Act are not affiliated with Worldcoin or its operations in any way."

On September 9, Gan Kim Yong, chairman of Singapore’s Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), offered a written statement to Singapore’s parliament: “The police are investigating seven subjects for their suspected involvement in offering the services of buying or selling of Worldcoin accounts and tokens, which constitute offences under Payment Services Act 2019. “

“[P]ersons who buy or sell Worldcoin accounts and tokens as a business may be providing a payment service,” Yong added.

Worldcoin has drawn legal and governmental scrutiny in multiple jurisdictions around the world from Germany to Kenya .

Last year, Kenya undertook a parliamentary review of the crypto project, forcing CEO Alex Blania to deliver testimony before parliament. “For the avoidance of doubt, Worldcoin does not and never will involve the collection or selling of data,” Blania told lawmakers. “No one – not even Tools for Humanity – can link biometric data to World ID. Further, the majority of the internal schematics and technical details of the technology are publicly available on the internet for everyone to review.”

However, some lawmakers objected to Blania’s anodyne characterization of the project and accused it of functioning like “a gang of criminals who are coming to harvest data from young people."

“The government is concerned by the ongoing activities of an organization calling itself ‘Worldcoin,” which is involved in the registration of citizens through collection of eyeball/iris data,” Kenya’s Cabinet Secretary for the Interior and National Administration Kithure Kindiki said.

The project has also raised the alarm of prominent privacy activists, including Edward Snowden, who exhorted the company not to "catalogue eyeballs.”