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Comment by TheDong

3 days ago

We almost all have IC Chip readers in our pocket (our cell phones), so if the government issues a card that has a private key embedded in it, akin to existing GnuPG SmartCards, you can use your phone to sign an attestation of your personhood.

In fact, Japan already has this in the form of "My Number Card". You go to a webpage, the webpage says "scan this QR code, touch your phone to your ID card, and type in your pin code", and doing that is enough to prove the the website that you're a human. You can choose to share name/birthday/address, and it's possible to only share a subset.

Robots do not get issued these cards. The government verifies your human-ness when they issue them. Any site can use this system, not just government sites.

Germany has this. The card plus PIN technically proves you are in current possession of both, not that you are the person (no biometrics or the like). You can chose to share/request not only certain data fields but also eg if you are below or above a certain age or height without disclosing the actual number.

  • > if you are below or above a certain age or height

    Is discrimination against dwarves still a thing in Germany?

    • I want to believe that this would be used at amusement parks to scan "can I safely get on this ride" and at the entrance to stairs to tell you if you'll bump your head or not.

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