[reaperducer]

without such digital id it is impossible to have such digital government services

And now we know what Estonia's single point of failure is.

An adversary only has to hack one system to bring an entire country down. That sounds a bit scary to me.

[Avamander]

Having an ID issued by a central authority does not mean it can only be used by the central authority in a way that it becomes a SPoF.

Attacking the DMV doesn't make licenses vanish into thin air either for example.

[reaperducer]

Attacking the DMV doesn't make licenses vanish into thin air

Nevada's DMV was part of a hack a couple of months ago, and it caused chaos beyond just drivers licenses.

https://www.2news.com/news/local/nevada-restores-fingerprint...

This is an excellent real-world example of why having all your data eggs in one basket is a terrible idea.

[Avamander]

Nevada's DMV is a great example what happens without eID. Agencies that have a better idea about people's identity have been forced to do things like background checks and fingerprinting. Your data eggs in one basket, or a few.

If you attack the DMV in a country that has working eID it will only affect the DMV. Maybe you can't sign up for a driving exam or order new plates. That's it. It won't affect the police in cases that don't concern the DMV (like insurance) and vice versa. Sure if you attack everything at once everything will be affected, that's always an option, eID or not.

Fundamentally a digital ID does not mean a single "basket", just that wherever those "eggs" are that you know it's one single "chicken". That "chicken" can also have multiple ways of identifying themselves (including offline methods). That's how it is in countries that have a working eID implemented.

[SXX]

This. It will certainly be used by Russia in case of invasion.