I don’t think it’s a very convincing argument if you’re talking about the United States government? We have some of the loosest Know Your Customer laws here because freedom and privacy are ingrained as paramount values.
Landlords request identification so they can run credit checks and background checks, there’s plenty of debate on the merit of both, but I don’t think it is unreasonable that a landlord wants to know who they are renting to. Without quick ID verification using a passport or driver’s license the landlord or business will be forced to use even more invasive measures to ensure you are who you say you are, this erodes trust between individuals and drastically increases transactional cost. Simply put, when a landlord cannot quickly verify you are who you say you are they are going to need to spend significantly more time manually investigating you, and will be slower to rent to you.
A state issued ID is only non-optional because it is convenient and trustworthy.
I believe that it is long-past time for the US to implement a proper national ID for all citizens: currently, we use Social Security numbers & cards in place of a proper ID, but Social Security numbers / cards are notoriously insecure. In fact, older Social Security cards used to print “NOT FOR IDENTIFICATION” on the bottom because they are so insecure, but most people used them anyway so they took that off to avoid confusion. According to this US Dept. of Justice report in 2012 and 2014 identity theft affected about 7% of the entire adult population of the United States, the insecurity of Social Security numbers is the leading factor. I expect the annual rate of identity theft in the US is still about 7% per year, it is a major issue. In contrast, I could not find another country that suffers to the same degree as the United States from identity theft, but in Europe (where most countries issue national IDs) identity theft appears to affect far fewer citizens (less than 0.01% per year, but I could not find a study to support that number).
Identity theft affects far more people every year than not having access to ID. Eliminating existing forms of ID, or privatizing the issuance of ID would exacerbate, not alleviate, both issues. I would rather have a public institution accountable to a democratic citizenship in charge of issuing IDs, not a private company only accountable to shareholders. Blockchains are a possible middle path, but they have not proved viable yet: so far, the technology has only proven particularly effective for committing fraud, not eliminating it.
I’m in Europe not the US. It looks like the US is more permissive than Europe. For example, sim cards and Visa gift cards are available without ID, cash is widely accepted (unlike Sweden for example: https://whycryptocurrencies.com/cashless_dystopia.html) and common law name changes are possible. Still if you don’t have a birth certificate or driver’s license, and the state won’t print one for you, life can be difficult even in the US.
For rentals, it’s only important that you can pay rent and deposit. Whether you have ID or not shouldn’t be relevant. The deposit covers any property damage and you can rent on a monthly basis in case you don’t have proof of income for a yearly contract.
For most things, just saying your name, using a password/PIN (e.g. SMS code to pickup mail), cryptographic keypair (such as in Bitcoin), pseudonymous reputation network (e.g. online reviews, vouches from friends) or cash deposits (e.g. for rentals) is enough to establish authentication or trust.
In Europe, anyone who can’t get ID is shut out of work, housing and healthcare. For a job, only your skills should be relevant. For housing, only your ability to pay rent should be relevant. For healthcare, only your medical condition should be relevant (in fact, it should be against the Hippocratic Oath to deny medical treatment to people without ID, especially if they are paying out-of-pocket in cash).
Europe does not have a better system. The state is a centralized single point of failure – if the state refuses to print an ID card for someone, this person can’t appeal, get help from NGOs or find an alternative way to get ID. Even Flag Theory requires an existing birth certificate or old passport. Even if you can get ID, the name that the state prints on your ID may not be the name you use in real life, and many countries restrict legal name changes, which is harmful for victims of abuse or trauma who want a safe new name.
Here is a text about people who have suffered due to KYC regulations: https://www.statelessness.eu/blog/each-person-left-living-streets-we-are-losing-society and https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/5050/still-stateless-still-suffering-its-time-for-european-leaders-to-take-action/ His stateless passport application was finally accepted after 15+ years which included homelessness, false imprisonment and involuntary unemployment. Most applications for ID for stateless people are rejected or ignored, or worse the person is imprisoned for the “crime” of not having identity documents, even though no government will print ID for them. The state has no interest in solving problems that it itself created via citizen vs. non-citizen discrimination (which is fatalistically based on circumstances of birth rather than inclusive via merit, personal beliefs or effort) and exclusionary government ID systems.
Blockchain actually prevents fraud. There are no chargebacks, no inflation, no double-spending and funds are secured by strong cryptography. If you hold your cryptocurrency private key and don’t show it to anyone, your funds cannot be stolen or seized. Low fees (can be less than 1 cent), fast confirmation times (can be instant) and accessibility for everyone (you only need internet, no ID or credit checks) are more advantages of cryptocurrencies as a global payment method.
My other article goes into detail about why KYC is actively harmful and how KYC-free alternatives can help everyone to access necessities like work, housing and healthcare: https://anarkiocrypto.medium.com/the-rarely-discussed-dangers-of-kyc-in-crypto-and-daily-life-and-what-you-can-do-about-it-20f2b5894439
I believe that it is long-past time for the US to implement a proper national ID for all citizens: currently, we use Social Security numbers & cards in place of a proper ID, but Social Security numbers / cards are notoriously insecure. In fact, older Social Security cards used to print “NOT FOR IDENTIFICATION” on the bottom because they are so insecure, but most people used them anyway so they took that off to avoid confusion. According to this US Dept. of Justice report in 2012 and 2014 identity theft affected about 7% of the entire adult population of the United States, the insecurity of Social Security numbers is the leading factor. I expect the annual rate of identity theft in the US is still about 7% per year, it is a major issue. In contrast, I could not find another country that suffers to the same degree as the United States from identity theft, but in Europe (where most countries issue national IDs) identity theft appears to affect far fewer citizens (less than 0.01% per year, but I could not find a study to support that number).
Yes! I know there is some objection to national ID here in the US, but we already use SS as a national ID (and an authentication secret!) when it’s woefully insufficient. The way we use our SS numbers is embarrassing and extremely harmful, but the situation is left to get worse just like our infrastructure because our government is systematically incapable of doing anything besides moving the margins on services and protections here and there.
Exellent explanation.
Sorry! makes wind and crackling noises …an’t read you, are you krrrssshh medium?
