WeChat, one of the most used apps in China, launches a new feature that will target people in debt.

China releases a new application

Debtors in North China’s Hebei province will find it a lot more difficult to keep their debt personal, according to China Daily. WeChat released a mini-program called: “a map of deadbeat debtors.” The application will find people within 500 meters that are in debt.

However, The debtor’s information is available to check in the program. It will make it easier for people to call out on debtors and see who is capable of paying their debts.

“It’s a part of our measures to enforce our rulings and create a socially credible environment,” said a spokesman of the court. Worth noting is that the court is behind the application.

The “map of deadbeat debtors” is the latest in China to push towards a shame-based social credit score system. According to a November report, Beijing has an ambitious plan to control China’s citizens. They will do it through a system of social scoring that punishes behaviour it does not approve.

The app will not only let you know if there’s anyone within 500 meters who find themselves unfortunate enough to be in debt. It also provides you with their names, their national ID numbers and even details of the debt owed, just for good measure. More disturbing is that this debt shaming app is just the tip of the iceberg.

China aims to control its citizens, can cryptocurrencies save the day?

According to an earlier article from Bloomberg, Beijing’s goal is to judge every resident based on behaviour by the end of 2020. Every citizen gets 1,000 points to start. Specific actions will then result in the individual’s score being reduced by a set number of points. According to the Beijing plan, different agencies will link databases to get a more detailed picture of every resident’s interactions across a multitude of financial and social platforms. They are well on the way of accomplishing this. Not all approve of this and critics warn that the new system could risk humans to become little more than report cards.

An example is Erik Voorhees, a famous bitcoin and cryptocurrency entrepreneur. He stated that it is madness. He tweeted that it is just like an episode of Black Mirror.

This is straight outta an episode of Black Mirror https://t.co/CjYCiHeZN3 — Erik Voorhees (@ErikVoorhees) January 23, 2019

The Chinese citizens have still hope. Could cryptocurrencies be the solution? Charles Hoskinson thought so and stated that this is exactly why cryptocurrencies exist. He warns that algorithmic society coms for all of us. We need to pick a side, do we, the people, want to lead the change or should we let our governments do it?

This is why Cryptocurrencies exist. Every single time you see some idiotic vox or huffpost article saying it's all pointless, make sure you post this article and others like it about social credit. Algorithmic society is coming. It's you in charge or the state. Pick a side https://t.co/qQqMY5U11h — Charles Hoskinson (@IOHK_Charles) January 24, 2019