Here are some interesting facts about World coin
Interior Cabinet Secretary Kithure Kindiki has suspended world coin activities in Kenya saying security concerns must first be addressed.
It has often been said that love makes people do crazy things, but for the better part of this week the same can be said about money.
We witnessed people stand in long queues to get their eyes scanned for Sh7,700 in the world coin saga, with little knowledge on what that data would be used for.
Mtaa Wangu got to speak to Vincent Munene who studies and writes on Cryptocurrency to understand how world coin works.
“Once you get your eye scanned you get a unique I.D that belongs to you and it exists in the database. So when signing in to get this unique I.D, you are required to give your personal information such as email, phone number and physical address,” he says.
Munene further explains the dangers of giving out this information.
“It is risky since after you offer this information, you can be able to be targeted specifically. So for example if terrorists were to target you specifically for a drone attack, they would be able to get you from the address you give when signing up to the world coin.”
Signing up for world coin began in May 2021 and in 2023 it was hacked. This raised concerns over the data protection measures that were employed in securing people’s data.
In choosing to halt the process in the country, Interior Cabinet Secretary Kithure Kindiki said all security concerns needed to be addressed first.
In Kenya, cryptocurrency in itself is a phenomenon that was introduced a few years ago so there really is no clear guide as to how well it is doing.
Munene estimates that only a low five percent of Kenyans have knowledge on cryptocurrency.
“In Kenya the cryptocurrency trend is slowly picking pace but with the way things are going maybe in the near future we will catch up to the first world countries," he adds.