Australia just rolled out mandatory internet ID verification, packaged as a noble effort to keep kids under 16 off social platforms. Sounds reasonable on the surface, right? Here's the catch—officials are openly calling this the "first domino." What they mean: a blueprint for global digital identity systems tied to online activity.

The implications? Every click, every login, potentially tracked and scored. Critics warn this isn't about protecting minors—it's infrastructure for surveillance at scale. Once the framework exists, expanding it becomes trivial. Social credit mechanisms, activity profiling, selective access restrictions.

For those in crypto and Web3 circles, this hits different. Decentralization exists partly as a response to exactly this kind of centralized control. When governments normalize identity gates for internet access, the case for privacy-preserving tech and censorship-resistant platforms gets a lot more urgent. The question isn't if other nations will watch this experiment—it's how many will replicate it.