Worldcoin is a start-up trying to engineer widespread adoption for its cryptocurrency by giving away tokens. Sound too good to be true? Depends how you look at it (literally). Participants must be willing to have their eyes scanned on registration by a proprietary iris scanner dubbed 'orb'. Worldcoin says the scan is necessary to prove that users are human and to verify they only register once. The start-up has attracted big investors but it has also raised concerns among an increasingly privacy-conscious public with some labeling it a MLM. We were joined by co-founder and CEO, Alex Blania, who explained the idea behind Worldcoin and the aspect of UBI, the current number of orbs in circulation and users, and he addresses the criticisms they have faced so far. Worldcoin is due to launch later this year. Topics covered in this episode: Alex's background and how he got into cryptoThe idea behind Worldcoin and the aspect of UBIHow does the orb work?How they have reacted to some of the criticism regarding privacy and onboardingA deep dive into how the protocol worksThe incentive mechanism with WorldcoinAn overview of Worldcoin usersThe corporate structure of WorldcoinRegulatory issuesEpisode links: WorldcoinWorldcoin on TwitterAlex on TwitterSponsors: Chorus One: Chorus One runs validators on cutting edge Proof of Stake networks such as Cosmos, Solana, Celo, Polkadot and Oasis. - https://epicenter.rocks/chorusoneParaSwap: ParaSwap aggregates all major DEXs and makes sure you beat the market price at every single swap and with the lowest slippage - paraswap.io/epicenterThis episode is hosted by Sebastien Couture & Friederike Ernst. Show notes and listening options: epicenter.tv/435

Axelar is a highly scalable, decentralized blockchain that aims to connect all existing blockchains. The proof of stake network, built on the Cosmos-SDK, allows application developers to choose the best blockchain to deploy their applications and use Axelar’s cross-chain communication protocols to lock, unlock, and transfer assets between networks, as well as communicate with applications on other blockchains. Co-founder and CEO of Axelar, Sergey Gorbunov joined us to chat about his experience working on Algorand, the importance and future of interoperabilty protocols, and the vision behind Axelar. Topics covered in this episode: Sergey's background and how he got into cryptoThe lessons he learnt from his time at AlgorandWhy and how Axelar was builtThe future of interoperabilty protocolsWhat are security challenges around interoperabilityInteroperability use cases beyond token transfersAtomic transactions with AlexarThe road ahead for AxelarEpisode links: Axelar SiteAxelar DiscordAxelar on TwitterSergey on TwitterNonconventional Podcast by Ela CrainSponsors: ParaSwap: ParaSwap aggregates all major DEXs and makes sure you beat the market price at every single swap and with the lowest slippage - paraswap.io/epicenterChorus One: Chorus One runs validators on cutting edge Proof of Stake networks such as Cosmos, Solana, Celo, Polkadot and Oasis. - https://epicenter.rocks/chorusoneThis episode is hosted by Brian Fabian Crain. Show notes and listening options: epicenter.tv/433