Wallbuilders Live! With David Barton & Rick Green

A simple promise—“digital makes life easier”—can mask a complicated reality. We dive into the fast-unfolding world of digital ID and how it’s being stitched together with payments, health credentials, and online access under the banner of “digital public infrastructure.” With Alex Newman, we examine concrete examples from Canada’s account freezes to China’s social credit system and Europe’s emerging digital wallet to understand what happens when identity, money, and movement live behind the same gatekeepers.We unpack the policy pretexts—child safety, fraud prevention, immigration control—and show how noble goals can harden into tools of control once systems interlock. Alex explains why central bank digital currencies are often designed to tie back to ID and personal data, and how that linkage can turn “verification” into a lever over daily life: work, travel, banking, and speech. We revisit constitutional guardrails like the Fourth Amendment and discuss why rights can erode by default when access requires con