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Comment by cdolan | Hacker News Reader

Why can’t this be automated with identification scanning software, which is highly commoditized at this point?

In my opinion it's dangerous to make verification too easy. Right now verification means, approximately, "this is somebody". Make verification too easy and it becomes "this person pays for Twitter" which is probably the opposite of what you want. I would say - keep verification as exclusive as it is, or slightly less, and charge for it is optimal.

Make it easy.

Payment connects you to a payment identity.

Ban payment identities that fraudulently pretend to be someone else on their name and profile.

"This is who they say they are" has been pretty reliably implemented in a ton of contexts, can largely be automated, and isn't really novel in any way.

Twitter's blue checkmark is more "this person is notable", which is a different thing and maybe valuable, although I think makes the blue checkmark probably a constant source of frustration for twitter.

Esp given that crypto coin banks do this via photos of your ID, now; just to sign up with them. They are fussy about the ID being up to date, too.

You may have stopped being you. How do they know if you are you if you haven’t renewed yourself?

I don't know whether they keep checking. I signed up then backed out wanting to let enough time pass to judge which such companies were legit legit. I'm pretty sure they insisted on two factor identification.

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