Reddit may soon ask: “Mind if I scan your eye?

Passwords are like the junk drawer of the internet: overstuffed, unreliable, and full of things you meant to replace years ago. We’ve spent decades juggling them—reusing the same ones, forgetting them, letting browsers remember them, and occasionally watching them leak into the wild.

Now, Reddit—yes, that Reddit—is considering replacing them with something straight out of a dystopian sci-fi flick: an iris scan.

That’s right. According to a report from Semafor, Reddit is exploring a partnership with Sam Altman’s Worldcoin project—specifically, the one involving an actual shiny metal Orb that scans your eyeball and gives you crypto in return.

It’s called World ID, and it’s already being quietly rolled out in various corners of the world. The premise is simple but chilling: your eyeball is your proof-of-personhood.

And Reddit, it seems, wants a piece of that biometric action.

The eye of the Reddit storm

Let’s get one thing straight: this isn’t about replacing usernames or banning anonymity. It’s about proving that you’re a real human being—and not a swarm of bots, trolls, or AI-generated chaos demons that flood every comment thread after 8 PM.

World ID works like this: you walk up to the Orb, stare into it like you’re unlocking a space station, and it creates a unique iris code. The raw data is deleted (they say), and the code is stored in a privacy-preserving system. You get a verified status and a little cryptocurrency for your trouble.

Sounds tidy, right? Until you remember that your iris is not a password. You can’t change it if someone leaks it. You can’t delete it from your body. And you definitely don’t want to be in a world where “reset your identity” involves surgery.

The trade-off no one asked for

Reddit claims this could help cut down on bots and make the platform safer. And sure, that’s a noble goal. Anyone who’s moderated a subreddit knows what a nightmare automated spam can be.

But here’s the question we should be asking: why do we keep handing tech companies more of our biology just because they can’t figure out how to manage the software side?

If Reddit adopts this system, it’s a huge philosophical shift. It’s not just about preventing spam. It’s about redefining trust online—not with passwords or hardware keys, but with your physical self.

And it raises an uncomfortable question: are we moving toward a future where being “real” online requires biometric proof?

Because if so, Reddit is just the beginning.

Dystopia with a smile

Sam Altman insists that Worldcoin’s Orb is safe, secure, and anonymous. The company claims it deletes your raw iris image and stores only a hash—an encrypted version that can’t be reverse-engineered.

But let’s be honest: even if it’s technically anonymous, there’s a fine line between privacy-preserving and functionally permanent surveillance.

And let’s talk incentives. Worldcoin offers people the equivalent of $30–40 to sign up. Who’s jumping on that? Not privacy-conscious engineers in San Francisco. It’s students in Indonesia, farmers in Kenya, people who could use the cash and don’t have time to read 14 pages of privacy policy.

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

Reddit, don’t be that guy

Reddit’s whole charm lies in its chaotic democracy. Anonymous accounts. Throwaway usernames. Subreddits that range from astrophysics to toaster reviews. Turning it into a biometric verification test bed feels like swapping out your local library for a TSA checkpoint.

It’s one thing to fight bots. It’s another to drag your user base into a permanent panopticon just to prove you’re doing something about it. Especially when we already have decent solutions on the table: two-factor authentication, CAPTCHA evolution, community moderation, verified third-party accounts.

And let’s not pretend this ends with Reddit. If eyeball scans become the new blue checkmark, the floodgates are open. Imagine proving you’re a human on Tinder. On Netflix. On your smart fridge. How many Orbs do you want in your life?

So, should we panic?

Not yet. Reddit is still only considering the partnership. But the fact that this is even on the table should be enough to make us pause. If we don’t push back now—if we don’t ask hard questions about where our identities begin and end—we might wake up in a world where access to memes requires an iris scan.

And no, you can’t just blink that away.

Want to scan your eyeball for karma? Reddit might soon make you choose between anonymity and authentication.

Let’s hope they choose wisely—or we might need new eyeballs and a new internet.

Noah Davis

Noah Davis is an accomplished UX strategist with a knack for blending innovative design with business strategy. With over a decade of experience, he excels at crafting user-centered solutions that drive engagement and achieve measurable results.