Ethereum Creator Sounds Alarm: World ID System Threatens to Kill Internet Anonymity

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin published an in-depth critique of biometric identity systems, particularly World (formerly Worldcoin). He believes that such technologies threaten to destroy the anonymity inherent in the modern internet by tying every online activity to the single unique identity of the user.

Buterin's Case Against Single-Identity Systems

“Even when wrapped in Zero-Knowledge Proofs, we're still moving closer to a world where nearly all your activities must be linked to a single public identity,” the Ethereum founder wrote. 

Buterin's argument is especially relevant to World because Zero-Knowledge Proofs are central to how the project approaches privacy. These cryptographic techniques can verify a claim like "this is a unique human" without exposing the underlying personal data. 

The problem, in Buterin's view, isn't how data is processed, but rather the architecture itself: one person permanently tied to one identity.

"A single identity represents a single point of vulnerability," he cautioned. Buterin highlights three threats associated with this approach. 

• Political surveillance: Governments could use verified identities to connect digital activity to individuals and monitor political dissent.

• AI-driven behavioral tracking: A persistent identity could make it easier to build detailed, long-term profiles of a person's behavior.

• Forced disclosure: Employers, platforms, or governments could require users to link their broader digital history to their legal identity as a condition of access.

First, the emergence of totalitarian regimes that will be able to mass-track dissidents. The second danger is the threat of artificial intelligence, which will be able to create a complete profile of all activities of a person who has opened their identity. The third reason is the threat of employers, who will seek to tie more data to the identity of a user who has opened their data to the company. 

Buterin’s primary recommendation is to focus on building a pluralistic system in which users have options. The available methods could include social connections, government ID, email, biometrics, or crypto wallets, depending on the context. The main advantage of a decentralized system is that it allows the user to determine the degree of disclosure of personal information.

Worldcoin Rushes Toward Mass Biometric Identity Creation in 2025

Buterin’s warning arrives as Worldcoin prepares to accelerate its efforts to create a biometric identity database. By 2025, the project has already scanned the irises of 10 million people and has established operations in six U.S. cities: San Francisco, Los Angeles, Miami, Atlanta, Nashville, and Austin. Backed by $135 million in fresh funding, it is targeting over 180 million American iris scans.

Beyond identity, World is piloting the World Card. This is a Visa product slated for U.S. launch this year that lets users convert WLD tokens to dollars via integrations with Stripe, Circle, and Kalshi. 

Worldcoin also announced a number of partnership projects for 2025. First, the service has tied up with Tinder Japan to become the first dating app to enable biometric identification at the national level. When it comes to games, World is collaborating with Razer on “League of Humans.” The company also planned to launch the Orb Mini - a compact iris scanner designed for the Global South - in emerging markets.