Worldcoin opened a LA location and somehow thought it was a good idea to have me speak. Spent 25 min calling out proof-of-person as a spoofable scam, warning about the surveillance state they’re helping to build, and telling everyone why they should never give up their biometric data. The looks on the Worldcoin staffers’ faces were priceless.
Digital art promised freedom from the old gatekeepers. Instead, power re‑aggregated around platforms, brokers, and a few loud accounts. We mistook new form for new substance. The result is the same bottlenecks on discovery, pay, and legitimacy, dressed as innovation. If we want a different outcome, we need different incentives: open curation, transparent algorithms, fair splits, and protocols that distribute power instead of concentrating it.
