The advantage of a traditional ID card is that that you usually know when "the readout" of your ID happens. I don't know about you, but my idea of a good society does not involve states reading out the identity of their citizens without them noticing. If they have to do that they are not that good at the whole state-thing.
A good ID system has to solve two problems:
- Allow verification that the holder of the ID is the owner of the ID (identity verification)
- Allow to read out certain facts. Bonus points if this can be done granular, e.g. verify to the other side that you are older than X years without telling them when you were born, where you live and what number a state assigned to you. Extra bonus points if you can see which information is read out and can deny (or even flag) over-eagerly information requests.
Note that for the identity verification you just need to know if the biometric identifier of the person holding the ID matches the picture on the ID. You do not know when they were born, what their name is, where they live etc.
In a safe digital future this need-to-know-principle is IMO necessary to keep the power symmetry between inividuals and governments/corporations/criminals.
A good ID system has to solve two problems:
- Allow verification that the holder of the ID is the owner of the ID (identity verification)
- Allow to read out certain facts. Bonus points if this can be done granular, e.g. verify to the other side that you are older than X years without telling them when you were born, where you live and what number a state assigned to you. Extra bonus points if you can see which information is read out and can deny (or even flag) over-eagerly information requests.
Note that for the identity verification you just need to know if the biometric identifier of the person holding the ID matches the picture on the ID. You do not know when they were born, what their name is, where they live etc.
In a safe digital future this need-to-know-principle is IMO necessary to keep the power symmetry between inividuals and governments/corporations/criminals.