The Velvet Cage: Why Digital IDs and Digital Currencies Terrify Me

It’s 10:30 in the morning as I write this, and I’ve done nothing today. Not because I don’t care, but because I care so much that my body froze. Overwhelmed. Sick with it.

What’s happening in the world right now isn’t abstract. It isn’t theoretical. It isn’t a conspiracy whispered in corners. It is happening in real time:

• Vietnam: Millions of bank accounts frozen until citizens submit biometric data. A face scan or fingerprint becomes the new threshold to access your own money.

• The UK: Plans are in motion to tie digital IDs to employment. Imagine showing up for a job interview, only to be turned away because your digital credentials don’t check out.

• The U.S.: Real ID is already required for domestic air travel and federal access. Today it’s just identification. Tomorrow it could be tied to your paycheck, your healthcare, your freedom of movement.

I’ve been following this since the start of this election cycle, trying to understand how such strange bedfellows — MAGA populists, white Christian nationalists, and Silicon Valley tech bros — could possibly share the same vision. Now it’s clear:

They all want the same thing.
Control.

And digital IDs and programmable currency would give it to them.

What a Day Could Look Like

This isn’t sci-fi. It’s the logical extension of what’s already happening:

• You wake up and check your bank account. Your paycheck didn’t arrive because of a social media post you made last night.

• You go to the airport. Your digital passport profile “doesn’t align,” so your flight is denied.

• You stop at the grocery store. Your purchases are frozen because you attended the “wrong” protest.

This isn’t freedom. It’s a velvet cage. The walls are invisible, the lock is a QR code, and the guard is an algorithm.

Not Left vs. Right

I need to say this clearly:
This is not Democrats vs. Republicans. Get that through your heads.

It’s the elite versus the rest of us.
The controllers versus the controlled.
The masters versus those being mastered.

For years, talk of a “one-world order” was dismissed as conspiracy theory. But how else would you build it? You would build it exactly like this — with a global digital ID system and programmable money.

Why I’m Terrified

I am terrified of this digital currency. Terrified. Because it will not stop at the margins. Yes, it will disproportionately target marginalized groups first — it always does. But it will also target dissent itself. Anyone who dares to step out of line. Even those who think they are on the “right” side.

When control is embedded into the infrastructure of daily life, you don’t need prisons. The prison is the system itself.

What Now?

I don’t pretend to have all the answers. I am just a woman sitting at her desk, frozen with fear, trying to write her way out. But I know this:

• We need to wake up before the code is written.

• We need to share what’s happening in Vietnam, the UK, and here in the U.S.

• We need to support the groups already pushing back — groups like the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and Privacy International.

Because this isn’t inevitable — not yet. History shows that when enough people resist, systems can be stopped, delayed, or reshaped.

Final Word

This is a digital prison.
It’s here. It’s happening.
And everyone needs to know.

Share this message. Look into it yourselves. Don’t wait until the gate clicks shut.