Iris for Coins? China Sounds Alarm on Crypto’s Creepy New Trend 👁️💰

by

Behold, dear reader, the curious spectacle of our age: where once we traded gold for bread, now we barter our very eyes for digital trinkets. The Ministry of State Security in China, that stern sentinel of order, has deigned to cast its gaze upon this peculiar commerce, where irises are not merely seen but scanned, and where the alchemy of crypto promises to turn retinas into wealth.

In a missive as dry as the Gobi Desert, yet no less formidable, the MSS has sounded the trumpet of caution. “Beware,” it intones, “the silver spheres that promise tokens in exchange for your gaze. For what is an iris but a portal to your soul? And what is a soul, when bartered, but a cipher in the ledger of the damned?”

Indeed, the MSS warns that such ventures-those that dangle crypto as bait for biometric data-pose perils both intimate and national. One might find oneself not merely a man, but a mimic, a ghost in the machine, or worse, a pawn in the chessboard of espionage. The examples, they say, are manifold: foreign agents, with smiles as smooth as silk, have lured the unwary into surrendering their faces, fingerprints, and the delicate constellations of their irises, only to vanish into the mist of “identity verification” and “token distribution.”

And who, you ask, is the architect of this grand illusion? The MSS, with its customary discretion, offers no names. But let us not play the fool. The description fits but one: Worldcoin, that phoenix risen from the ashes of skepticism, now rebranded as “World,” yet still clinging to its silver Orb, that device of both wonder and dread. For what is the Orb but a modern-day ouija board, where your eye is the pointer and your privacy the prize?

Sam Altman, that savior of the AI age, has cast his vision upon a “World ID” system, where the uninitiated may prove their humanity by gazing into the Orb. A noble aim, one might say, to distinguish the flesh-and-blood from the silicon-savvy. Yet the price? A fragment of one’s very being, stored in the vaults of the unknown. “Privacy-first,” the project declares, as if privacy were a buffet from which one may pick and choose.

And so, the world has taken notice. Kenya, that land of elephants and tea, has barred the Orb from its soil. Hong Kong, that jewel of paradoxes, has declared it a breach of data law. France, Portugal, Spain, Brazil, South Korea-each has raised its eyebrow, and each has seen the Orb depart, like a jester unmasked. Yet the WLD token, that digital bauble, has fallen from its perch, now trading at a price that would make a pauper weep. For what is a token, if not a mirror reflecting the fragility of trust?

And thus, the stage is set. China’s warning, like a thunderclap in a summer sky, may yet send the WLD token tumbling further. But in this dance of data and desire, who shall emerge unscathed? Only time-and perhaps a few unscanned irises-will tell.

Read More

2025-08-06 12:16