[petu]

> Relying upon the Internet being there for ID purposes is a massive fail.

Why would you need internet? Document holder smartphone can cache the document for years and present it over NFC (including photo, signature, etc). Just like existing biometric passports work, but replace the physical passport with smartphone app.

[klausa]

To check against $your-local-law-enforcement-agency database, $your-local-immigration-agency for history of entry, etc.

The internet requirement is not there for the person presenting the document, it's for the person/system checking it.

[petu]

System checking it just verifies the signature is valid and thus all data presented is valid? Your browser doesn't need to query any Root CAs to trust SSL certificate, https works without internet.

History of entry and visas/etc could be stored on device as well

[klausa]

If you want to argue for a theoretical system that is self-contained, only relies on the data that is present on either the physical (or the theoretical cryptographically signed digital) passport, you're free to do that.

But in the real world, the systems that deal with processing people's entries already cross-reference multiple other existing databases, require internet connectivity to do so, and I think you'll have hard time convincing anyone to stop doing that.

[fc417fc802]

They check opportunistically but they are capable of operating without doing so.