[Animats]

The future of online identity is centralized.

China is already there. At age 16, you get your picture and fingerprints taken. If you get a phone, its ID is tied to your personal ID. Your WeChat account is tied to that ID. If you ride the subway or bus in a major city, or a train, your ID is recorded when you pay. A combination of phone tracking and facial recognition records where you go in some cities. It's even used to shame jaywalkers.[1]

The US is getting there with Real ID. It's been postponed a year due to the epidemic, but soon you will need a Real ID, checked against your birth registration, to board even a domestic flight.

[1] https://youtu.be/ectdRsyj-zI

[jadbox]

As the article mentions, centralized trust has proven that it reaches a certain maximum before being plagued by political, legal, and corruption. I don't know much about the China's state ID system, but based on other systems they've rolled out, I'm sure with enough money and the right contacts you can wipe, fabricate, or change your ID (which is also true for the US). Centralized systems have to also undertake the same problems as decentralized ones, like ensuring records are kept updated, which is no trivial task when providing identity for millions of people(1)

(1) https://www.washingtonpost.com/us-policy/2020/06/25/irs-stim...

[closeparen]

Real ID is a contract between the federal government and the states about the security of their existing ID issuing processes. It covers things like, don’t leave ID printers and card stock in podunk branch offices where $12/hour staff can let in their friends at night. Use printing processes that are sufficiently hard to replicate. If your freedom relied on stuff like this, you were already an outlaw, the only implication of Real ID is that now you will need stronger technical skills to produce your next convincing fake. It has nothing to do with where and whether IDs are required. Airport and courthouse security have been requiring IDs for many years now.