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by pelasaco 1243 days ago
There are lot of documents to proof document identity, for instance, notaries in Brazil: https://finbold.com/brazil-authenticates-156k-documents-via-...
1 comments

What does a blockchain bring to that process that signing a document with a normal public-private key pair does not?
Who holds the private key, the end user or a centralized entity?
Presumably the equivalent to the Brazilian notary blockchain would be a centralised entity (in this case, probably Growth Tech[1], or perhaps the central government or a key sharing scheme between the both of them), since that's a private permissioned blockchain.

[1]: https://growthtech.com.br

IMHO, the whole private permission based blockchain thing is just a poor attempt at a very slow database. This concept really hasn't caught on, primarily because of the centralized aspects.

While we are very far way from this concept in the real world, I'd prefer my proof of identity documents to live on something that isn't controlled by any single entity other than myself. Sure makes them a lot more difficult to revoke or modify without my consent.

Even with a hypothetical maximally decentralised system, there's always a centralised chokepoint where a specific organisation (including and perhaps especially, a state) that you wish to prove your identity to chooses to unconditionally accept records from the system.
How is this any different than people choosing to accept (or not) payment in bitcoin?