> After a person’s iris is captured, the biometric data never leaves the orb, they explain, instead converting it into the IrisCode, which itself is only used to create a verification of a person’s uniqueness through a convoluted system of zero-knowledge proofs and proto-danksharding.

It's definitely both of the first two.

People seem to love making a big deal out of the earth not being a perfect sphere. In reality, the earth is like 3 tenths of a percent out of round (equatorial bulge is 0.003 of equatorial radius). This works out to about 21km which puts Mount Everest to shame but is really nothing compared to the 6371km mean radius of the earth.