antitoxic

Yes I think so, although I might have read a slight adaptation. Thank you!

This reminds me of a different short story I read somewhere that I, for the life of me, cannot find anymore. It's about aliens discussing earth (but they call it differently I believe) and how far they have evolved. They have 2 books/logs. One containing all life, and then another book containing all super intelligent life. They find out that earth already has some super advanced stuff, so they are deciding if it should move to the second log.

Does this ring a bell for anyone?

I think we are talking about different things here. I think you are referencing the eu-digital-identity-wallet, which is a reference implementation. Our identity wallet precedes this wallet and never had this requirement.

Yes it does actually. You load your ID into your phone with the MRZ and NFC. The cryptographic proof inside your ID is used to verify that it was issued by an official government. So your ID is not being sent to a central server.

The reusing another ID is an issue. In some countries they will have a in person check to verify only you can load your ID into your phone. But then you still have the problem of sending a verification QR code to someone else and have them verify it. This might be solved by rolling time-gated QR codes and by making it illegal to verify someone else's verifications. But this is a valid concern and a problem that still needs solving.

That is exactly the trust I mean. You need to trust that country X gives out valid IDs. If you have sketchy company Y giving out IDs to everyone, you probably would not trust any attributes derived from that ID. If you trust that a country gives out valid IDs, you can trust the information derived from that ID. You do not really need to trust your government any more than that for this system to work.

The wallet ecosystem is still really varied at the moment. Our implementation is unlinkable. So an issuer cannot track where you use the attribute. And a verifier cannot see that you've used the same attribute multiple times with their system. This is great for privacy and tracking protection, but not so great for other things. For example, people sending their QR codes to other people with the correct attribute (like maybe an underage person sending an 18+ check to an adult), is hard to solve for because they are unlinkable.

Most systems right now have you load data in your phone. Then when a check happens, you scan a QR code. You then get a screen on your phone saying X wants to know Y and Z about you, do you want to share this information? Then you just choose yes or no.

For your social media example. You would just get a QR code on your pc, then pull out your phone, scan and verify, then start browsing social media on your pc.

We support F-droid, so you could get a degoogled android version and use that to load the app on your phone. The app could also be ported to other platforms, but right now there is really no market for it.

We do not require an attestation and things like token smuggling is still a problem we need to solve. We have a system that prioritizes unlinkability. So an issuer cannot track the attribute they give you. And a verifier cannot link multiple disclosures with the same attribute. This privacy really helps things like token smuggling however. Time-gated tokens may increase the difficulty, but will probably not make it impossible. Making it illegal to verify someone else's qr codes could also help of course.

No it is open-source and portable to any platform you want. We currently support iOS and Android through Play store and F-droid, but that is just because most of the market is there at the moment.

I work at a European identity wallet system that uses a zero knowledge proof age identification system. It derives an age attribute such as "over 18" from a passport or ID, without disclosing any other information such as the date of birth. As long as you trust the government that gave out the ID, you can trust the attribute, and anonymously verify somebodies age.

I think there are many pros and cons to be said about age verification, but I think this method solves most problems this article supposes, if it is combined with other common practices in the EU such as deleting inactive accounts and such. These limitations are real, but tractable. IDs can be issued to younger teenagers, wallet infrastructure matures over time, and countries without strong identity systems primarily undermine their own age bans. Jurisdictions that accept facial estimation as sufficient verification are not taking enforcement seriously in the first place. The trap described in this article is a product of the current paradigm, not an inevitability.