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You can take a look at what Switzerland is about to do:

https://www.homburger.ch/de/insights/swiss-voters-approve-ne...!



Would be very tough to implement in the US, as proposing any sort of "national ID" is pretty much a nonstarter, at least up to this point.

States could do it, and maybe agree on some protocols so that things like privacy-preserving "age verification" could be done.

Maybe the feds could push it like they did with speed limits: make federal funding contingent upon adopting e-ID. Would still get a lot of pushback.


The problem with e-ID is its focused on identity verification, not just age verification and that's where the problem lies.

We still need the ability to be psuedoanonymous online. We should be able to verify age without divulging any identifying information to the service requesting age verification.

An e-ID registry could work on a sort of public/private key system so long as the services requesting informatino from the registry only receives a yes or no of "is this person old enough" and no further information.


If an e-ID can vouch you are citizen number #3223423, it should be able to use the same crypto to vouch that your birth date predates a threshold, without revealing anything else. It's more a question of requirements gathering & UX (and political will).


It's a problem for you and me, but a feature for those pushing for it.


> Once issued, the e-ID will be stored in a secure digital wallet application on the user’s smartphone or other compatible device.

That sounds like Apple & Google-blessed Android only, open source gadgets and non-Microsoft desktops not supported. Estonia at least used smart cards where a reader can be plugged into just about anything.


I'm obviously not going to show my id to Zuckerberg's website or any porn sites, casinos because I don't trust those bastards. They're also not the police, so they lack the proper autoritah to request my an id.


I think the point of the comment you are answering to is that in Switzerland, they are building a system where you can prove your age without telling who you are to the website, and without telling which website you visit to your government.


The government might not know which website exactly, but the fact that you are looking to verify your age is in itself a datum that you might not want the government to know. "Palata was either looking at porn or buying drugs in January 2026" is probably not something you want the government to know, even if the specifics are obscure.


Unless your e-ID app automatically requests 20 age verification tokens for everybody, whether they use them or not.


How are you going to farm the UUID for each user? Or are the IDs sequential?




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