"World Coin Is Coming Back" Dennis Itumbi

Digital strategist Dennis Itumbi has vowed to lobby for the reintroduction of Kenya’s controversial cryptocurrency project, Worldcoin.

The crypto project, co-founded by Sam Altman, CEO of American artificial intelligence company OpenAI, was suspended in Kenya on August 2, 2023 due to data security concerns amid a hysterical surge in Nairobi.

Itumbi believes that the project will help increase the financial volume of the youth who have massively taken up digital domains to earn a living.

“I will fight in all relevant tables to ensure that Worldcoin returns 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. I guess in a year it will be around Ksh.1000/2000 bob.”

On December 14, 2023, a government source exclusively reported that an agreement had been reached to allow the US-based firm to resume operations under the new guidelines.

“Worldcoin is working directly with regulators to meet Kenya’s requirements, especially as the assembly considers new regulations. Scholarships will remain and expand to locations across the country,” a source told Citizen Digital.

The Worldcoin project launched globally on June 24. But despite its ambitions for a decentralized global currency, the project was met with privacy concerns and questions about the security of the biometric data the company collected from Kenyans.

The verification process involved scanning the eyeball through the Orb in exchange for a digital identity called World ID and then getting 25 free cryptocurrency tokens known as WLD, then worth Ksh 8,256.

The government has halted all activities related to the crypto project until the relevant agencies confirm the absence of any security risks.