I honestly am struggling with this, but somehow these articles are not an April Fool’s joke:
MIT Tech Review: https://www.technologyreview.com/2022/04/06/1048981/worldcoin-cryptocurrency-biometrics-web3/
Buzzfeed: https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/richardnieva/worldcoin-crypto-eyeball-scanning-orb-problems
Surreal as this may sound, there is, actually, a Crypto company, with real employees, who have built a handheld “Orb,” which they are bringing around the world, scanning the retinas of as many people they can, in exchange for vouchers for their proprietary cryptocurrency. Their actual goal is to distribute their currency equally to everyone on Earth, and they have come to the conclusion that the best way to do so is through retinal scans, to make sure no one gets their basic amount twice.
If that seems far-fetched to you, you’re not alone. The MIT article points out some very sketchy parts of their plan, and the privacy concerns involved.