I saw a post on Mastodon about smashing them when you find them, before seeing anything about what they actually are, and that first post was exactly right in the end.

@anniegreens It feels quite dystopian.

@manton selling your soul for some magic beans isn’t as compelling as it used to be

That article leaves me more confused then before. For me, all of the crypto world is a solution searching for a problem. But with the mentioned, obvious problems (people might loose access to private keys, or sell it, or die. Ignoring the fact that there are a lot of them) I would hardly call WorldCoin a “solution”.

@jl_siewert Yeah, it seems like an attempt to solve a real problem (distinguishing AI from humans) but it does create new problems.

I mean we have government issued IDs for that 🤷‍♂️

@jl_siewert … that’s part of the problem - which Govt? (Not siding with Altman here).

@JohnPhilpin without central entities, how do you

• verify that the orb does not store data capable of replicating the scans without you knowing
• verify that the orb does not fake digital entities without human counterpart
• remove entities from the system when one has passed away
• restore access when someone inevitably looses access to his keys
• restore access when someone was tricked or forced into passing on his entity to someone else

Especially point three has to come from some form of trusted local administration. And why shouldn’t this entity be a body elected from and acting in the best interest of the local community.

I recently read the joke that cryptography is the science of turning every problem into a key management problem while simultaneously ignoring that key management is very hard to do.

@jl_siewert oh - not saying it is easy - nor even that we can do it - and I am definitely no expert - just saying that we have ‘issues’ in the West that suggests that ‘Govt’ might not be the best centralized solution - and by the time you get to ‘RoW’ - those issues are MASSIVE.

I posted something earlier today that in turn referenced this article from a friend of mine in New Zealand.

@JohnPhilpin thanks for sharing that, interesting read. While I disagree with his arguments, he is advocating for eID as well.

“But how can we trust governments” is, unfortunately, a relevant point. I just think trusting some VC-backed billionaires instead isn’t the most obvious solution.

@jl_siewert if you feel inspired and have the time, interest and inclination - would love to see you comment on his Substack to that effect. If he’s wrong - would love to shake it loose - but it might be that he isn’t being as clear as he might?