[johnqian]

I think a lot of commenters here would benefit from adjusting their scam-radars. The way you scam people is by offering something that sounds great and plausible, but actually isn't. Consider Theranos, Bernie Madoff, etc. Worldcoin doesn't fit the pattern at all. To almost everyone that they need to sell to, it sounds ridiculous and dystopian. If Sam wanted to scam the poor to make himself richer, why would he make it so difficult for himself? There's far easier ways to do it that would escape public scrutiny.

I don't know whether the approach will work, but we'd have a much more productive conversation if we assumed good intent.

[joe_the_user]

To almost everyone that they need to sell to, it sounds ridiculous and dystopian.

I've heard this kind of apology for scams before.

If a "scam that sounds like a scam" still rips people successfully, well, the scammers are still guilty of fraud and I still view people who do it with contempt.

And "scams that sound like scams" are marketed to desperate people. In many ways, finding a promise people want to believe is more important than finding a claim that you easily defend. The people who check out frauds in detail are never a fraud's target market.