The Day I Traded My Iris for 30 Seconds
A biometric line at a Colombian airport, and the trade between convenience and control I made in thirty seconds and can't take back.
Lightly edited on 2 October 2026. One sentence about self-custody was corrected, because Bitcoin's ledger is public.
Every time I have flown back to Colombia in recent years, the same scene has played out at immigration. Tourists in a line that can last four or five hours. Colombians in another, long and winding, full of exhausted faces. And then a third line, short, quick and effortless: the biometric enrollment line, which Migración Colombia calls BIOMIG.
For years, I refused. It didn't feel voluntary. Officials would say: "Colombianos, this way." No explanation. No consent forms. Just an expectation that I hand over my iris, my identity. In exchange? Efficiency.
I held out, until I didn't. After too many long trips, one day I caved. Thirty seconds later, I was through. Thirty seconds later, I regretted it.
Because I knew what I had done. I sold my privacy for speed. I told myself it was harmless, just a line at the airport. But deep down I knew it was more than that. I had reinforced the very system I mistrusted. Convenience was the bait. Control was the catch.
Governments are masters of branding. They wrap surveillance in words like "security" and "public good." Who can argue against safety or shorter lines? But every scan, every fingerprint, every database entry builds an infrastructure that rarely rolls back. Once your body becomes your passport, you don't get to take it back.
And history shows what comes next. Political violence sparks fear. Leaders respond with promises of safety. But safety usually means more checkpoints, more monitoring, more trade-offs you don't remember agreeing to.
Bitcoin matters to me here, and not because it makes airports faster. It proves another system is possible, one where you don't need to trade your identity for permission. Self-custody means no one can freeze your savings or decide whether you are allowed to move them. Fixed supply means you don't need to trust the same people who can't balance a budget to protect your savings.
I regret stepping into that biometric line. I can't undo it. But I can use that regret as fuel. To remind myself and anyone listening: privacy isn't optional, it's survival. And maybe the real shortcut is building systems that don't demand we give up pieces of ourselves just to pass through.