[zo1]

If you think that's bad, look at the UK. They had a government-ID system with an ID card, and then they scrapped it. Now people run around using driver's licenses and municipal bills (I guess) to open bank accounts and other things. Utterly backwards.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Identity_Documents_Act_2010

I've been formulating my thinking around it and I'm starting to think that this is some sort of new-age "luddism" at play, coupled with some odd distrust of government for this particular problem, as if government is trustable elsewhere.

[katbyte]

What did the Goverment ID offer over a drivers license? Here in bc Canada drivers license is sufficient ID most places, and if you don’t drive you get bc Id which is just a drivers license without the driving part.

[robin_reala]

There is an online identity verification service run by the UK government: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/introducing-govuk...

Verification is done by third-parties in conjunction with government data. At the moment it’s only used for government services, but there has been talk for half a decade about expanding it to the private sector.