China’s Iris Scan Crypto Crackdown: Worldcoin in the Crosshairs as Regulators Issue Red Alert

Beijing draws a hard line on biometric data—and Sam Altman's crypto project just became its prime target.

When surveillance states get spooked, you know privacy tech has hit a nerve. China's latest warning shot across the bow of iris-scanning cryptocurrencies lands as Worldcoin's orb-operated ID system keeps expanding—right into a geopolitical minefield.

The biometric gold rush hits a firewall

No government tolerates competition in the identity verification game, least less one that's perfected social credit scoring. Worldcoin's promise of 'global proof-of-personhood' now faces its ultimate stress test: a superpower that views decentralized ID as an existential threat.

Regulators always follow the data trail

For all the talk of Web3 disrupting Big Tech, here's the reality check: when you're collecting eyeball scans at shopping malls, you're playing in the same league as Alibaba's smile-to-pay systems—just without the Politburo's blessing.

Another 'decentralized' project learning the hard way that when China says 'jump,' even crypto founders ask 'how high?' on the way up.