Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, has reaffirmed his goals for the cryptocurrency project Worldcoin in the wake of rumours that the business was looking for $50 million in funding.

According to Worldcoin, its goal is to establish a global financial network and identity. In exchange for a digital ID and free bitcoin, over 2.6 million people have signed up to have their irises scanned by Worldcoin’s “orb” devices.

A week after cryptocurrency news outlet The Block revealed that Tools For Humanity, the business behind Worldcoin, was looking to raise $50 million from investors, Altman participated in a virtual Q&A sponsored by fintech-focused investment bank FT Partners on Thursday.

The Block claims that the company is raising money by offering the project’s cryptocurrency tokens for sale at a discount.

“In a world with a lot of AI, knowing who is human matters more and more,” Altman said on Thursday.

“The belief was and is that as AI becomes an increasingly important part of our lives…the ability to identify unique humans was going to be more and more important.”

There were no comments available from Worldcoin on The Block’s report.

In a previous Series C fundraising round headed by Blockchain Capital and including a16z crypto and Bain Capital Crypto, the company raised $115 million.

Following Worldcoin’s July launch, a number of regulators, including those in the UK and Germany, stated they were investigating the cryptocurrency.

(Adapted from TBSNews.com)