Digital identity: a threat to privacy or benefit?
Governments all over the world are working to improve digital identification capabilities. They explain this by expressing concern for people’s comfort.
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A digital ID is an online representation of a person's true identity. It exists in the form of an electronic file containing personal information such as a passport number, a social security number, and biometric data (face image, fingerprints, and retina scan). However, tokenizing this data and even storing it on the blockchain is a relatively new idea that is gaining traction.
Many governments have expressed strong support for the idea of combining blockchain technologies with biometrics. They promote the idea of keeping the identification numbers of their citizens in the register through various aspects of their lives. And most often, they use public services that are impossible (or difficult) to refuse: health care, education, and social assistance.
1. Turkey implements a blockchain-based digital biometrics system to access the public services portal. The e-government website has approximately 62 million active users, and all of them will be required to go through digital identification in order to access government services. Turkey has a population of slightly less than 85 million people. If minors are excluded, the country seems to be ready to create a complete biometric register of citizens on the blockchain.
2. India intends to issue around 1 billion digital IDs using the identity dApp Belshare. The National Health Authority of India will use blockchain technology to create a single system for storing the health data of identified citizens. According to Indian authorities, this will improve treatment efficiency and reduce the time spent transferring patient records from one hospital to another. India has a population of 1.4 billion people.
3. South Korea will implement a blockchain-based national identity system beginning in 2024. However, it is already being used to obtain a driver's license. The next step will be the integration of a national identity card, known as resident registration. That is, every citizen of South Korea will be required to leave their digital fingerprint on the blockchain to be eligible for employment and state social assistance.
4. Bangladesh integrates biometrics into the state firearms registration system. The registry allows authorities to quickly verify the legality of firearm ownership, and owners can use the online system to renew their licenses.
5. Portugal recently announced the implementation of biometric identification cards. It will be a contactless ID card that stores retinal and fingerprint data. It will enable the country's citizens to vote and gain access to public services. There are currently no additional data available regarding this project.
Traditional passports with photos seem to be a thing of the past. Either you hand over your biometrics to the state, or you lose most of your legal rights.
According to social interaction researchers, a digital identity system with one NFT for each citizen will be developed by 2030. This will fundamentally change approaches to security issues in banking, e-commerce, migration, and travel sectors.
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