What If Trust Was Something You Earned, Not Scanned?

Hey folks, this one's personal.

I’ve been deep in the weeds of Web3, identity, and the "how-do-we-know-you're-human" problem for a while. But lately, I’ve seen something brewing that doesn’t sit right with me. It’s about Worldcoin, orbs, eyeballs, and this wild race to make everyone prove they’re human in the most dystopian way possible.

Let me break it down simply.

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What’s a Sybil Attack? (And Why People Care)

A Sybil attack is when someone pretends to be a bunch of people online. Like, imagine I create 1000 fake wallets and use them to claim 1000 free airdrops. Boom. That’s a Sybil attack.

To stop this, people build "Sybil resistance" systems. The idea is: prove you're a real, single human and not some bot army. Sounds fair, right? But here’s where it gets messy.

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The Never-Ending Game

Every time we try to stop Sybil attacks, we make things more strict. First, it was just email. Then phone numbers. Then passport scans. Now? Worldcoin wants to scan your damn eyeballs.

This is a loop. Attackers find a way in. Defenders make it harder. Repeat. It never ends. And it always hurts regular people more than the attackers.

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What Tech Lets You Do (Not What It Says It Does)

Here’s a fun idea: "affordances." It means what something lets you do, not what it’s meant to do.

A rock can be:

• A chair.

• A weapon.

• A hiding spot.

Same with tech. You might build something to "prove humanity." But what if it ends up enabling surveillance? Control? Coercion?

That’s where Worldcoin worries me.

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Worldcoin: Proving Humanity, Or Just Another Weapon?

Let’s talk about the orb.

Worldcoin gives people tokens for scanning their eyes. Sounds sci-fi. It is. But in practice, it’s being used in places where folks are vulnerable. Reports of people being forced, tricked, or lined up to be scanned? That’s real.

If an eyeball scan = money, then eyeballs = money.

Now imagine how that goes wrong. Fast.

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Banned Once? You’re Out Forever

Worldcoin IDs are meant to be unique. One person, one account. If an app bans you and uses your Worldcoin ID? You can't just make another account.

No more VPN tricks. No new identity. Just... out.

This isn't just Sybil resistance. It's control. It gives platforms god-mode powers to silence you permanently.

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The Government Angle (This Gets Scary Fast)

Now imagine your digital ID is connected to government services.

• No ID? No health access.

• No ID? No bank account.

• No ID? No job.

You messed up once? Said the wrong thing? You're locked out of society. That's not Sybil resistance. That’s digital authoritarianism.

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Why Biometric Proof Fails in Practice?

Real Talk:
I actually tried the orb once. It didn’t scan my eyes properly. I don’t know why — maybe lighting, maybe how I blinked, maybe something else.

Meanwhile, my friend got scanned just fine. That moment made it super clear: what happens when tech like this becomes a gatekeeper?

What if my access to apps, money, or social platforms depended on that failed scan? That shouldn’t be how we define identity.

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They Even Put It in a Tinder Ad??

Yes, seriously. One of Worldcoin’s ads shows a guy getting his eyeball scanned on a date.

Like... now you need an orb scan to be dateable? Are we serious?

This turns social pressure into biometric coercion. "Oh, you're not verified? I don't feel safe."

No thanks.

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And It Doesn't Even Solve the Actual Problem

Even with all these scans, Worldcoin won't stop bots, spam, or deepfakes. It just creates a club where only scanned people can join.

Bots will still exist. Fake content will still spread. Only difference? Now real humans are excluded too.

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So... What Can We Do Instead?

We don’t need to scan eyeballs to fix Sybil attacks. Other ideas exist:

1. Using Money as a Filter (Bitcoin Style)

Imagine you need to pay a small fee every time you make a new account or action.

If someone wants to make 1,000 fake identities, they’d have to spend a ton of money. Most won’t bother.

Bitcoin works like this. Instead of verifying you’re human, it makes doing fake stuff really expensive.

✅ Simple idea: Make cheating cost something.

2. Trust Your Friends (Web of Trust)

Let’s say I trust you. And you trust your friend. So I’m more likely to trust your friend too.

That’s called a "web of trust."

Instead of proving you're human with biometrics, people vouch for each other — like references or real-world reputation.

✅ Simple idea: Real people vouch for real people.

3. Social Graphs (Like Circles UBI)

Imagine every person has their own mini-network of friends. You only get value (like a token or points) when people in your circle interact with you.

If you’re fake, your circle is fake too — and the system notices.

✅ Simple idea: You earn value through real social connections.

4. Human Behavior Patterns

Bots act weird. They click too fast, scroll like maniacs, or post nonsense.

But you? You read, pause, maybe type with typos — like a real human.

We can train systems to look for those patterns. Kind of like a digital "gut feeling."

✅ Simple idea: Humans behave in human ways — bots don’t.

5. Social Turing Tests

Remember how we humans can tell when someone’s acting "off"?

A Social Turing Test is just that: people testing if someone feels like a bot or a real person.

Think: tiny games or challenges that are easy for humans but tricky for bots.

✅ Simple idea: People are still better than machines at spotting fakes.

These are less flashy, but more human.

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Final Thoughts

Identity isn’t about biometrics. It’s about relationships. Trust. Reputation. Community.

Worldcoin wants us to believe trust = iris scans.

I disagree. Strongly.

If your system turns humans into data points to be farmed, controlled, or discarded... it’s not a solution.

It’s a problem.

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My Ask to You

• Don’t normalize this.

• Don’t support tools that hurt the most vulnerable.

• Build human-first identity systems.

We deserve better.

Let’s stop escalating the Sybil war. Let’s find another way.

And yeah...

Fuck Worldcoin.

Thanks for reading.