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Comment by danmaz74 | Hacker News Reader

I really REALLY hope this takes off at a EU level. And that the Estonians will reap some benefits by being the first to pave the way, so maybe some healthy competition on providing the best services to citizens will ensue between EU countries...

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What is the major benefit of something like this? I can't think of a single transaction I've undertaken in the past few months (either online or offline) where it would have been to my advantage to authenticate my real name. I frequently need to authenticate an ongoing relationship (my gym membership, logging in to Amazon Prime), but in none of these situations does it matter who I am, just that I'm the same person I was before. Generally those counterparties get that information anyway, but I consider that information leakage an artifact of the authentication process, not a beneficial feature of the system.

We already have solid methods for identifying ourselves as the same person as we used to be (various public keys, for example), and if we want to establish a consistent identity across multiple contexts/domains, we also have that option. This really doesn't benefit consumers in any way.

For government paperwork, it definitely helps to authenticate who you are.

As long as you need to access government services, I'd rather have them be efficient.

My country has had national IDs for close to a century, and they make life a lot easier for databases and programming :)

My country has had national IDs for close to a century, and they make life a lot easier for databases and programming

Strange, from my perspective, this seems like a negative result.

I couldn't buy a flat without manually signing some papers at notary office and presenting my government issued physical id.

I cannot convincingly prove that I entered any work agreement I did online.

I cannot proove anything anyone committed to online.

How about voting in elections on the Internet or on your mobile?

Giving any binding signatures online or via mobile?

Any official communications with government services where both sides need to know who the other is, not just who they say they are?

Legally binding online agreements between private parties?

Maybe in the past few months you never transacted with your Country's public administration. I have, and I would like very much to do 90% of those interactions online, without having to personal relay information from one part of the administration to another part.

It's very easy for me to make a single in-band communication with my government (show up one day, show that I'm me) and establish login credentials proving that I'm me. I see no advantage to a general online identification system that goes beyond that.

So you can show up once at one institution and after that do everything in your life online using those credentials you acquired, either with private persons, companies or state/public institutions?

I'm from Belgium where we have a national electronic id. It's main use to me is filing my tax online. Supposedly I can also do certain administrative task with it but I have needed it at the moment.

I really hope this DOESNOT take off at EU level

The level of tracking and privacy violations online is already disturbing and downright creepy

This would take it to a whole new level.

There are other bad things possible, for example, I can already see Media Industry lawyers rubbing their hands, tie National ID cards to ISP database and overnight suing people would become easier.

So how do you identify yourself over the Internet without this?

The same way you have always done, with online accounts. There is no problem to solve here.

the problem to solve here is that for each government service you get a different account.

One for the entity managing your retirement funds, one for the national healthcare, one for the tax filing, one for requesting a certificate etc, one for filing a request with the police etc, one for the city council services, one for the district, one for the region, one for the university, one for the separate agency that manages scholarships etc.

I am, honestly, listing the ones I had to cope with. In my country, each entity manages their own system, with different bugs, varying level of security and screw ups, incompatible data, delays of up to two weeks to receive a PIN when signing up for a new service and the occasional "wait, you are not supposed to exist" moments.

I'd take a unified, compatible multifactor auth system like the estonian one every day. Heck, there was even an OpenID bridge some years ago!

EDIT: it's still up apparently

https://openid.ee/en/

There's also now an European cross-border service for digital signatures originating from Estonia: https://www.signwise.me/

Have you ever tried to integrate to N different 3rd party ID providers? It's a jungle, and I'd happily see a competent national replacement.

Did you notice the word "biometric" in the article? I'd rather have the future look like this: http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-28055678 .

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