Comment by kristofferR
4 years ago
This is kind of funny to read, since in Norway basically every interaction with the government (paying taxes, filing for divorce, accessing our health records etc.) is done through an oauth2 system, the same one we use to log in to our bank accounts/get loans through. Most people haven't interacted with the government via paper in years.
https://docs.digdir.no/idporten_overordnet.html
https://www.altinn.no/hjelp/innlogging/id-portenminidbankid/
Some very few non-digital government services remain, unfortunately, and it seems like the storage of wills is one of them. Asset transfer is still going to remain a manual process though, even when digital wills are here, thankfully.
America's federalism would make this idea a mess here: Each state has their own system for everything and 50%+ of the lower-level governments/agencies (county or municipal level) don't have any digital footprint at all, even a website. For example, there are plenty of elections across the country whose official results can't be accessed online at all. You have to call in, go in person, or request mail/fax. There's basically a minimum of 50 different systems for even the most basic of government services (such as renewing a driver's license). And then you need to multiply that by all the different agencies and services. The federal government couldn't force one system for everything (there are certain things that are constitutionally up to the states), so it would be basically dead in the water since the problem is getting all 50 states (each with their own internal politics) to agree to implement the same system.
Not a problem web3 can solve either. Social Security Numbers aren't secure, but we keep using them everywhere because the political will to implement a better solution doesn't exist.
>>>America's federalism would make this idea a mess here: Each state has their own system for everything and 50%+ of the lower-level governments/agencies (county or municipal level) don't have any digital footprint at all, even a website.
Additional example: I need to pay property taxes on my mother's house in New Jersey. I'm physically on the other side of the planet. While the town has a website, it's pretty much just a phone directory. I have to call them every 3 months, usually when it's 2-3am in my timezone, ask them what the property taxes are assuming I pay them by {$date}, and then mail them checks. I can't even do something as simple as enter the property lot number in a search field on their site, have it look up the outstanding taxes, and then just pay with a VISA card.
The Federal government SHOULD be able to force certain things in the name of "regulating interstate commerce". I would think that data standards and APIs would have efficiencies at scale that would reduce friction in inter-state transactions.