Passwords are just like the junk drawer of the web: overstuffed, unreliable, and filled with belongings you meant to switch years in the past. We’ve spent many years juggling them—reusing the identical ones, forgetting them, letting browsers bear in mind them, and infrequently watching them leak into the wild.

Now, Reddit—sure, that Reddit—is contemplating changing them with one thing straight out of a dystopian sci-fi flick: an iris scan.

That’s proper. Based on a report from Semafor, Reddit is exploring a partnership with Sam Altman’s Worldcoin venture—particularly, the one involving an precise shiny metallic Orb that scans your eyeball and provides you crypto in return.

It’s referred to as World ID, and it’s already being quietly rolled out in varied corners of the world. The premise is straightforward however chilling: your eyeball is your proof-of-personhood.

And Reddit, it appears, needs a chunk of that biometric motion.

The attention of the Reddit storm

Let’s get one factor straight: this isn’t about changing usernames or banning anonymity. It’s about proving that you just’re an actual human being—and never a swarm of bots, trolls, or AI-generated chaos demons that flood each remark thread after 8 PM.

World ID works like this: you stroll as much as the Orb, stare into it such as you’re unlocking an area station, and it creates a singular iris code. The uncooked information is deleted (they are saying), and the code is saved in a privacy-preserving system. You get a verified standing and somewhat cryptocurrency to your hassle.

Sounds tidy, proper? Till you do not forget that your iris just isn’t a password. You may’t change it if somebody leaks it. You may’t delete it out of your physique. And also you positively don’t wish to be in a world the place “reset your id” entails surgical procedure.

The trade-off nobody requested for

Reddit claims this might assist minimize down on bots and make the platform safer. And certain, that’s a noble objective. Anybody who’s moderated a subreddit is aware of what a nightmare automated spam may be.

However right here’s the query we ought to be asking: why can we preserve handing tech corporations extra of our biology simply because they will’t work out the right way to handle the software program aspect?

If Reddit adopts this technique, it’s an enormous philosophical shift. It’s not nearly stopping spam. It’s about redefining belief on-line—not with passwords or {hardware} keys, however with your bodily self.

And it raises an uncomfortable query: are we transferring towards a future the place being “actual” on-line requires biometric proof?

As a result of in that case, Reddit is just the start.

Dystopia with a smile

Sam Altman insists that Worldcoin’s Orb is protected, safe, and nameless. The corporate claims it deletes your uncooked iris picture and shops solely a hash—an encrypted model that may’t be reverse-engineered.

However let’s be sincere: even when it’s technically nameless, there’s a nice line between privacy-preserving and functionally everlasting surveillance.

And let’s discuss incentives. Worldcoin affords individuals the equal of $30–40 to enroll. Who’s leaping on that? Not privacy-conscious engineers in San Francisco. It’s college students in Indonesia, farmers in Kenya, individuals who may use the money and don’t have time to learn 14 pages of privateness coverage.

That’s not innovation. That’s exploitation sporting a blockchain hoodie.

Reddit, don’t be that man

Reddit’s entire attraction lies in its chaotic democracy. Nameless accounts. Throwaway usernames. Subreddits that vary from astrophysics to toaster evaluations. Turning it right into a biometric verification take a look at mattress seems like swapping out your native library for a TSA checkpoint.

It’s one factor to struggle bots. It’s one other to tug your person base right into a everlasting panopticon simply to show you’re doing one thing about it. Particularly once we have already got respectable options on the desk: two-factor authentication, CAPTCHA evolution, group moderation, verified third-party accounts.

And let’s not faux this ends with Reddit. If eyeball scans change into the brand new blue checkmark, the floodgates are open. Think about proving you’re a human on Tinder. On Netflix. In your good fridge. What number of Orbs would you like in your life?

So, ought to we panic?

Not but. Reddit remains to be solely contemplating the partnership. However the truth that that is even on the desk must be sufficient to make us pause. If we don’t push again now—if we don’t ask laborious questions on the place our identities start and finish—we would get up in a world the place entry to memes requires an iris scan.

And no, you possibly can’t simply blink that away.

Need to scan your eyeball for karma? Reddit may quickly make you select between anonymity and authentication.

Let’s hope they select correctly—or we would want new eyeballs and a brand new web.