But seriously, public keys are not memorable and thus are subject to spoofing. Blockchain-based systems (e.g. Namecoin) can more or less solve Zooko's Triangle by creating a "fair" registration system for human-readable names.
The team behind this app is comprised of two marketing execs (very successful ones, mind you). Successfully implementing blockchains require extensive crypto, game theory, and security capabilities. Is there something I missing here?
Sure, associating a large number of assertions about personal information with a blockchain-held identity is possible. However, this still doesn't solve the question of "who put it there", "do i trust them" and "to what degree was this information vetted?"
Currently, identification documents are defacto vetted by various portions of government, legal threats thereof and (partly) the incovenience cost (re: physical presence, wait time, overall hoop jumping) of actually going to get a new drivers license / passport / etc.
By removing that inconvenience you basically make it cheap to create fakes unless you have some overwhelmingly new approach to identity verification.
Unfortunately that's unlikely.
Finally, if we observe one of the key properties of the current-era systems as absolute national segmentation within identity verification systems, this startup seems to actually be more interested in providing a heavily US-centric solution on an international blockchain, which doesn't strike me as a good fit.
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[ 2.8 ms ] story [ 19.4 ms ] threadBut seriously, public keys are not memorable and thus are subject to spoofing. Blockchain-based systems (e.g. Namecoin) can more or less solve Zooko's Triangle by creating a "fair" registration system for human-readable names.
EDIT: On a more productive note, I assume this is something a team like Ethereum is going to tackle or already is tackling, no? https://blog.ethereum.org/2015/04/13/visions-part-1-the-valu...
Currently, identification documents are defacto vetted by various portions of government, legal threats thereof and (partly) the incovenience cost (re: physical presence, wait time, overall hoop jumping) of actually going to get a new drivers license / passport / etc.
By removing that inconvenience you basically make it cheap to create fakes unless you have some overwhelmingly new approach to identity verification.
Unfortunately that's unlikely.
Finally, if we observe one of the key properties of the current-era systems as absolute national segmentation within identity verification systems, this startup seems to actually be more interested in providing a heavily US-centric solution on an international blockchain, which doesn't strike me as a good fit.