[sshine]

It would be an excellent case for zero-knowledge cryptography:

All that you need to know is that I am above 18 years of age.

You don't need to know how old I am, what my birthday is, what state I was born in, my gender, or when my passport expires.

The downside with ZK cryptography is the complexity. Something would have to be insanely inconvenient to justify it.

[swiftcoder]

> It would be an excellent case for zero-knowledge cryptography:

The last ~third of the article is about the EU's zero-knowledge approach

[Hizonner]

You mean the EU's fake snake oil zero-knowledge approach.

They've standardized two systems under the banner of "zero knowledge". One is actually zero knowledge. The other is trust-me snake oil. Guess which one is getting deployment.

[swiftcoder]

yes, I'm aware, although the article does not mention that distinction

[sshine]

> While the rest of the world is moving forward with identity verification plans, the EU has presented its own privacy-focused approach to age verification. In April 2026, Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, unveiled an age verification app with “the highest privacy standards in the world” and the presentation materials describe the app as “completely anonymous.”

I’m just afraid that membership countries will be too dumb to understand the difference, and for the population worldwide to be able to comprehend that it’s even possible. To be honest, ZK crypto is one hell of a party trick. Compared to tech where the premise is “we put a picture of your passport in a box, and when people want to know, we look and confirm.”

[falsepositive44]

People don't read, just comment

[alecco]

Judges and lawmakers are lawyers and a significant chunk of them are Boomers. Good luck with that.