So-called age verification for social media is spreading across the world, framed as an effort to create a safer internet for children. In reality, age verification lays the foundation for a fully controlled internet.
The age verification rush must be slowed down, and politicians need to recognize the consequences of different types of legislation and systems.
Age verification is the wrong approach to fix “the social media problem”
The big tech social media companies are bad. Their business model is bad; it is based on mass surveillance and manipulation, and they cooperate with governments in mapping entire populations. But age verification is fundamentally the wrong approach to preventing children from using big tech social media platforms. Introducing age verification is based on coercion; the state forces social media companies to verify their users’ identities. But the big tech social media platforms already know which of their users are children. Their business model depends on knowing this. They know how old users are, and they know exactly what type of person they are. As age verification is based on coercion, politicians could instead force platforms to stop doing the things politicians consider harmful to children, or force them to block children (again, they know who they are) from using their services. But instead, politicians seek to massively invade everyone’s privacy and undermine democratic rights on a global scale. In other words, the latter is the real objective – they do not want to protect children; they want to impose control.
Slippery slope of age verification
It is undeniable that age verification threatens freedom of expression, risks increasing mass surveillance, and is likely to lead to censorship. It will not only shrink the online world and reduce young people’s right to privacy (for example, if VPN services were to be restricted); but also risks becoming a significant step toward a controlled internet for everyone.
Most age verification is identity verification
Most countries are now considering introducing age verification systems, meaning that everyone would have to identify themselves either to the service/website they want to use or to a third party capable of linking them to their activity on that service or website. This is not age verification but identity verification, and the consequence is therefore that freedom of information is restricted (you can no longer visit regulated websites anonymously) and that you can no longer post anonymously on social media. This is a major problem in countries like the UK and Germany where the police conduct raids on people’s homes for posting content on social media that the authorities dislike. Or in the United States, where authorities are trying to pressure tech companies into revealing the identities behind accounts protesting ICE. Social media identity verification removes important tools for activists in countries where criticizing those in power is dangerous.
Restrictions on app store or operating system level
Some countries are looking to impose identity verification at the app store level or even within the operating system itself. This is an exciting experiment, since this is possible to circumvent using open-source operating systems. Some countries are already looking to include open-source systems. Since open-source systems cannot be controlled, politicians would ultimately need to ban devices that are not controlled by the state. The end point: telescreens like those in Orwell’s 1984, devices that both monitor you and broadcast only the information approved by the state.
The Zero-Knowledge Proof (ZKP) alternative and the EU
The EU has presented its own age verification app as “completely anonymous”. The idea is to use Zero-Knowledge Proof (ZKP) cryptography to break the link between the age credential issuer (EU governments) and the regulated services/sites. Currently, the EU app does not have ZKP functionality, contrasting Ursula von der Leyen’s claim that the app ”is technically ready to be used”. But more importantly, the app is currently designed to always function without ZKP technology; if ZKP is unavailable, the app falls back to a non-ZKP model. Even if fully developed ZKP technology could be implemented in the future, it would remain an optional extra feature that countries may choose to disable and that the EU could remove at any time.
Read more on our site.
https://t.co/wTVKHMS1zg
@ice_z3us you should be aware that you don't have much room for trust. Unfortunately, you haven't made the best use of it so far. Your transparency was also not good, you did not show which partner gave up and sold and caused chaos! ...
✨ Even though it is Sunday, I have personally spent more than 20 hours yesterday and today making sure everything is prepared for Monday.
I am honestly very hyped about tomorrow.
The next two weeks are extremely important for us and, in many ways, they will help define the future direction of $ION.
For those of you who have ever run ads or marketing campaigns before, you will understand what I mean when I say this: promoting Online+ through platforms like Google, Meta, and other major advertising networks was extremely difficult because of the nature of the product and its connection to crypto.
That created real limitations for us.
We could not properly promote it, scale campaigns, test audiences, optimize lead costs, or reach users in the way a normal product should be able to.
What we have built and are launching tomorrow is different.
From the beginning, this product has been designed with advertising compliance in mind, so we can finally run proper campaigns through platforms like Meta, Google, search, social, and other business acquisition channels.
The goal is very clear:
Bring in real users.
Generate real revenue.
Create real utility for the $ION ecosystem.
My focus right now is simple: I want the company to generate revenue without needing to sell a single token anymore.
Once we reach profitability, we can move with more strength into the next phase: token appreciation, buybacks, burns, deeper utility, and long-term ecosystem growth.
I want this project to succeed more than anyone.
I want you all to know that I am doing my best, every single day, to beat what sometimes feels impossible.
What I can promise is transparency.
Positive or negative, I will keep sharing the progress, the data, the feedback, the next steps, and what we are learning along the way.
These next two weeks will show us a lot:
Whether the product is strong.
Whether acquisition costs make sense.
How real customers react.
What feedback we receive.
What needs to be improved.
And how fast we can turn this into a profitable growth engine.
What I can say already is that we are pioneers again.
This is something new, something nobody else is doing in the way we are preparing to do it, and that is one of the reasons we are keeping the product name private for now.
Not because there is anything to hide.
But because we want to protect the launch, protect the team’s work, and avoid unnecessary FUD around a product that deserves a clean start.
New product.
New brand.
Same company.
Just like Online+ has its own name, brand, and domain, this new product also has its own brand and domain.
That does not mean it is separated from Ice Labs.
That does not mean anything strange is happening.
It simply means we are launching it properly for the market it is built for.
Tomorrow is the beginning.
Now we execute, measure, improve, and prove.
💫 We owe you an apology.
One week ago, we said Phase One of the new ION direction was expected to launch within two weeks.
We were wrong.
Phase One is already finished — and the controlled launch is scheduled to begin first thing Monday.
That means we are moving one week earlier than expected.
Over the past week, our small team pushed harder than ever. We have integrated AI deeply into our development, QA, testing, iteration, documentation, and automation workflows.
In total, last week, we processed more than 17 billion AI tokens across agentic development pipelines, automated QA loops, regression testing, edge-case simulations, code reviews, optimization tasks, technical documentation, campaign preparation, and product validation work.
While we were sleeping, our agents were still working.
Testing.
Breaking things.
Finding issues.
Re-running flows.
Improving outputs.
Validating user journeys.
Preparing the product for real clients.
This is exactly the speed we were missing in the past.
We had strong ideas before, but we often lacked the execution velocity needed to bring them to market fast enough. This time, things are different.
Phase One is not a hype launch.
It is a controlled launch with a small initial client base, where we will calibrate campaigns, optimize acquisition costs, collect real feedback, improve conversion flows, and validate demand with actual users.
The goal is simple:
Build a product that brings real utility, real monthly revenue, and real value back into the ION ecosystem.
This new direction is connected to the AI industry, but it is not dependent on crypto hype, KOLs, market noise, or empty speculation. It can be marketed through real business channels, including search, social, and direct acquisition campaigns.
We have already prepared multiple campaign angles. Once we begin collecting data, I will share updates as transparently as possible: what works, what does not, what we are improving, and how the product is performing.
Some people will say this is just marketing.
That is fine.
If it is only marketing, it will not survive contact with real clients, real campaigns, real feedback, and real numbers.
The project is 100% open-source under the MIT license and will be shared publicly at the right moment.
For now, we launch, measure, learn, improve, and grow.
This is the rebuild.
This is the speed we needed.
And this is how we make ION stronger, sharper, and useful again.
Zeus
WhatsApp encryption is a giant fraud.
The state of Texas just sued WhatsApp for lying to users about privacy — because WhatsApp employees have access to “virtually all” private messages.
Now we know what WhatsApp’s founder meant when he said he “sold his users’ privacy.”
🌈 I’ve never been more focused on proving what ION can become.
This time, we build first, launch first, prove first. Then reveal everything.
No hype. No noise. Just execution.
The next 6 weeks will define the rebuild.
If your country requires digital ID verification to use social media, then you don't live in a free country anymore.
If your country want to regulate or ban VPNs, you don't live in a free country anymore.
@TheNorfolkLion @Vintage64TX 1,500 years. 40 authors. There is no editor's meeting. There is no common plan. No group chat.
And yet one plot. One villain.
One hero. One solution.
No human project has ever come close to that. Not by chance. Not even on purpose.
$ION isn’t going anywhere.
1. Still building — active development is ongoing.
2. No proof of a scam — no rug pulls, no exit scams, just normal building challenges.
3. The chain is live — developers are building on it right now.
DYOR.
#ION is here to stay.
✨ Some of you may think we went silent because we stopped working on ION.
We didn’t.
As we said weeks ago, we are still here, still building, and still fighting to put the project back on the right path.
Yes, the team is smaller now. But I still believe this team is capable of doing something powerful once the work we’ve been doing is ready to be shown publicly.
In the past, you were used to weekly bulletins, timelines, updates, and constant transparency.
That changes now.
We will no longer share every step, every internal milestone, or every expected timeline before things are ready. We learned the hard way that too much transparency can sometimes create more damage than trust, especially when technical delays happen and people turn unfinished work into FUD.
This period may look difficult from the outside, but I believe it will make the community stronger. It will separate the noise from the believers, the bad mouths from the builders, and the short-term panic from the long-term vision.
Our focus now is simple: build products that generate real revenue, so we never end up in this position again.
Big changes are coming. The website will be updated. The whitepaper will be updated. And when the time is right, the new direction will be clear.
One lesson I learned personally: never brag before the product is ready. If what we are building was easy, everyone would have done it already.
Right now, words will not convince everyone. And that is fine.
Because if our plan works and we execute it properly, the results will speak louder than any post.
We are not building only for crypto users.
We are building something that can scale beyond crypto, cheaper, faster, and with real utility.
Silence does not mean surrender.
It means focus.
Zeus
La baleine bleue produit un lait si riche et épais qu’il ressemble à de la crème fluide avec 50% de matières grasses … parfaitement adapté pour que son petit puisse se nourrir sous l’eau sans que le lait ne se disperse.
Comment ne pas croire au Créateur derrière ces merveilles🥹