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0 pointsEvanAnderson3y ago0 comments

In the United States the US Postal Service would be a great fit for a job like this. They already have good infrastructure for identity verification and physical distribution.

I wouldn't want escrow of private keys, however. I'd rather the USPS just act as a certification authority that provides strong guarantees of identity verification.

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toomuchtodo3y ago

Yes, definitely. USPS + Login.gov could act as trust anchors, with cryptographic keys reprovisioned upon proofing, versus storing them. I am open to whatever is the optimal balance between security and practicality.

https://www.uspsoig.gov/document/role-postal-service-identit...

> The Postal Service Reform Act of 2022 has recently expanded the Postal Service’s ability to provide identity verification to all levels of government. A window of opportunity is currently open for USPS to contribute to closing gaps in government identity verification processes.

numbsafari3y ago

Except that here in the US a non-trivial number of politicians of a particular persuasion[1] actually believe that government issued ID, of any kind, is the "mark of the beast". There's a reason that Real ID had a lot of push back. Having USPS, already a political bogey-man for that same crowd, become a holder of "identity" is probably going to face a lot of pushback.

[1] just one, recent example... https://www.al.com/news/2022/10/alabama-gop-chairman-made-th...

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collegeburner3y ago

i don't want this because then more websites will start expecting strong identity verification. the last thing we need are more attacks on anonymity. at least with a private key i can say i'm joe biden or crazy horse or whoever. i may not be eligible for "government escrow" but who cares.

EvanAndersonOP3y ago

It's a double-edged sword for sure.

My bank is already regulated and required to have strong identity verification for some operations. They won't let use any sensible multi-factor authentication, however. Requiring they use such a government mandated authentication infrastructure would be a major "win" for my piece-of-mind.

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