Online identities are going beyond a simple convenience and they’ve got the real potential of being required for, you know, life in general (and I hyped this up as a civil liberties issue rather than just minor convenience.) China is up first as the model a complete live on-air “Citizen Credit Reset” that supposedly links all purchases, transport and internet access to a state digital ID i.e. “no digital ID, no participation”.
In the U.K. The piece reports a forced digital identity project is linked to immigration and security policy and could become compulsory by 2029, cautioning that not only work, taxes, public services would depend on an undisclosed “digital stick” but might extend to basic needs as food or transport. In the E.U., it points to the digital euro pilot and warns that “programmable money” could allow policy based restrictions on how funds are used; it also flags the impending “Chat Control” proposal that requires scanning of encrypted messages, with Signal indicating that it might instead leave the market than weaken encryption.
IDs, CBDCs and mandated data scanning “work to create an architecture of total compliance.“ As a response, it encourages use of decentralized, censorship-resistant tools such as Bitcoin and Nostr.
Tone & takeaway: a cautionary editorial that Western democracies are in danger of sliding into China style control unless firm guardrails are established now.
