[JoelJacobson]

Imagine using the ID card emoji (U+1FAAA) as a universal carrier for digital ID tokens. A dumb demo is available at https://pit.lovable.app/ which—without any secure protocol—simply encodes a National Identification Number into the emoji using variation selectors.

The idea is that banks could issue encrypted ID tokens in this way, letting them move seamlessly across any platform that supports Unicode (messaging apps, email, web forms, etc.). The heavy lifting of security (preventing replay attacks, interception, ensuring token freshness, etc.) would be managed separately with robust cryptography, while the emoji serves purely as a transport layer.

It's not about reinventing security but about creating a cross-platform way to carry identity tokens. Thoughts?

[bruce343434]

What is wrong with just using the actual SSN? Why hide it in an emoji?

[JoelJacobson]

So that the operating system could recognize it automatically, and to include a potentially long URL to the retail bank's web service to initiate the protocol, such as signing a document or an identification protocol.