[foepys]

It's obviously something services have to implement for each type of ID. When you have to interact with the real world that things get a bit messy.

Companies can abstract this away and be certified by each government, e.g. like Stripe. It's nothing special.

[encryptluks2]

Again, then you have a centralized authority. Many countries already have issues with fake IDs. I guess it is better than doing nothing though.

[giaour]

> Again, then you have a centralized authority

Not really, unless you think of PayPal and Stripe as the "centralized authorities" of credit card processing. It's still a system with multiple authorities/centers of power; you'd just be paying a third party for the convenience of integrating those multiple authorities into a single layer of abstraction. If you're worried about the aggregator somehow subverting or altering your requests, you can always cut them out of the transaction.

[prox]

What’s wrong with a centralized authority here? Most countries already have everything like birth certificates and social ID numbers on file.

[encryptluks2]

Who watches the watchmen?

[giaour]

Voters, omsbudsmen, inspectors general, auditors, other levels/branches of government, etc.

[encryptluks2]

When a single entity is responsible for managing IDs that governments provide it is ripe for abuse still. I'm not saying it couldn't work but these issues would need to be worked out. I'd rather see a decentralized solution that allows users to pick which IDs to accept, etc.

[llukas]

Spammers.