The key here is the failure of the government to have robust, intelligent identification services. Here's how things could work: All banks cooperate and create an online identity platform that's...
The key here is the failure of the government to have robust, intelligent identification services.
Here's how things could work:
All banks cooperate and create an online identity platform that's got two-factor authentication. They use this to verify whenever you use your credit card online, they use this to log you into all sorts of websites.
The government sets up an official online identity portal where every single piece of governmental message to you as a person, and that you send to the government is centralized. Everything from a local building permit application, to your tax filings and returns, drivers licence application, and so on. You can log onto this portal using either official 2Fa, or simply using your bank-ID information.
You can electronically sign documents with your verified IDs in the two portals. All the communication is encrypted, no chance of stuff being stolen in the mail. Since all of this is secure and encrypted, why should credit cards be any worse? Chuck in chipped debit/credit cards where you basically never sign to avoid forgerie.
You can associate an email account or phone number (or many) with your accounts on either of the two portals, so you never have to check them. You get a text message/email message when you get new mail, when deadlines approach and so on depending on your preferences.
Money transfers between all banks on the platform are instantaneous since everyone's on the same platform already. No more waiting for checks to clear (paper ones have long since died) or receiving your pay check.
All of this is free to you as a consumer or business, because it saves the banks and government so much in mail and fraud costs.
Now all your application forms and offices are available in your home, 24/7/365 without a wait because everything's digital and online.
Things like notarizing documents or taking official pictures etc. that have to be done in person remain that way.
Sounds like a futuristic dream right?
This was the situation in Norway more than a decade ago. The investment costs have long since been recuperated.
This sort of centralization is something I would love to see in the U.S., though my immediate concern would be funding. Without sufficient funding, security concerns would be pretty big. After...
This sort of centralization is something I would love to see in the U.S., though my immediate concern would be funding. Without sufficient funding, security concerns would be pretty big. After all, by centralizing everything, you create a single point of failure.
Barring that, I think that what we need more than anything, as a prerequisite to a centralized system, is a way to guarantee identity remotely that is resistant to fraud/identify theft. Even without the ability to fully prevent it, being able to counteract the effects of it would be great, e.g. in-person biometric identification followed by a report of the fraud/identity theft and the ability to easily replace stolen information with new information, such as generating a new SSN and automatically updating employment records to reflect that change. I'm not sure how identity is managed in Norway, but in the U.S. we have a birth certificate and a special number assigned to us, and often times that number and some basic personally identifying information like name and date of birth is all you really need to assume your identity, so identity theft is incredibly easy.
In other words, we need a guaranteed and authoritative identification system for managing your identity, and a centralized system for being able to use and distribute it. I think the combination could be incredibly robust and powerful.
We have an 11-digit SSN assigned at birth. The first six digits are the date of birth. That's a powerful tool: Loans / credit cards in the name of a child are trivially easy to avoid. SSNs are...
We have an 11-digit SSN assigned at birth. The first six digits are the date of birth. That's a powerful tool:
Loans / credit cards in the name of a child are trivially easy to avoid.
SSNs are really powerful tool for performing research on governmental records when anonymized.
Two-factor authentication when logging in anywhere with your SSN if you log in through the banking portal.
The first point is interesting because it means that when you gain control over your electronic identity (your records as a child are available to your parents'/guardian's through their SSN) you're the only person who has access and since it's 2FA, it stays that way.
Funding isn't an issue; the initial investment cost might be, but again, through cheaper insurances for banks themselves due to lower risks of fraud etc. everyone's making money off the solution.
Since the effect immediately impacts the bottom line of big banking if something goes awry, the financial stakes for the large financial institutions ensure security is the name of the game. It's real shareholder value at the same time as us all as customers will basically never trust the insecure "other" banks ever again if we can help it.
I'd expect the largest hurdle in the US is a political one. With a single system, your governmental records are systematized and organized. In a country where automatic voter registration isn't federally mandated because of "privacy", the whole system sounds like a pipe dream, although it's more private and secure for you as a person (if your government isn't spying on you through secret arrangements in violation of your public rights).
The key here is the failure of the government to have robust, intelligent identification services.
Here's how things could work:
All banks cooperate and create an online identity platform that's got two-factor authentication. They use this to verify whenever you use your credit card online, they use this to log you into all sorts of websites.
The government sets up an official online identity portal where every single piece of governmental message to you as a person, and that you send to the government is centralized. Everything from a local building permit application, to your tax filings and returns, drivers licence application, and so on. You can log onto this portal using either official 2Fa, or simply using your bank-ID information.
You can electronically sign documents with your verified IDs in the two portals. All the communication is encrypted, no chance of stuff being stolen in the mail. Since all of this is secure and encrypted, why should credit cards be any worse? Chuck in chipped debit/credit cards where you basically never sign to avoid forgerie.
You can associate an email account or phone number (or many) with your accounts on either of the two portals, so you never have to check them. You get a text message/email message when you get new mail, when deadlines approach and so on depending on your preferences.
Money transfers between all banks on the platform are instantaneous since everyone's on the same platform already. No more waiting for checks to clear (paper ones have long since died) or receiving your pay check.
All of this is free to you as a consumer or business, because it saves the banks and government so much in mail and fraud costs.
Now all your application forms and offices are available in your home, 24/7/365 without a wait because everything's digital and online.
Things like notarizing documents or taking official pictures etc. that have to be done in person remain that way.
Sounds like a futuristic dream right?
This was the situation in Norway more than a decade ago. The investment costs have long since been recuperated.
This sort of centralization is something I would love to see in the U.S., though my immediate concern would be funding. Without sufficient funding, security concerns would be pretty big. After all, by centralizing everything, you create a single point of failure.
Barring that, I think that what we need more than anything, as a prerequisite to a centralized system, is a way to guarantee identity remotely that is resistant to fraud/identify theft. Even without the ability to fully prevent it, being able to counteract the effects of it would be great, e.g. in-person biometric identification followed by a report of the fraud/identity theft and the ability to easily replace stolen information with new information, such as generating a new SSN and automatically updating employment records to reflect that change. I'm not sure how identity is managed in Norway, but in the U.S. we have a birth certificate and a special number assigned to us, and often times that number and some basic personally identifying information like name and date of birth is all you really need to assume your identity, so identity theft is incredibly easy.
In other words, we need a guaranteed and authoritative identification system for managing your identity, and a centralized system for being able to use and distribute it. I think the combination could be incredibly robust and powerful.
We have an 11-digit SSN assigned at birth. The first six digits are the date of birth. That's a powerful tool:
The first point is interesting because it means that when you gain control over your electronic identity (your records as a child are available to your parents'/guardian's through their SSN) you're the only person who has access and since it's 2FA, it stays that way.
Funding isn't an issue; the initial investment cost might be, but again, through cheaper insurances for banks themselves due to lower risks of fraud etc. everyone's making money off the solution.
Since the effect immediately impacts the bottom line of big banking if something goes awry, the financial stakes for the large financial institutions ensure security is the name of the game. It's real shareholder value at the same time as us all as customers will basically never trust the insecure "other" banks ever again if we can help it.
I'd expect the largest hurdle in the US is a political one. With a single system, your governmental records are systematized and organized. In a country where automatic voter registration isn't federally mandated because of "privacy", the whole system sounds like a pipe dream, although it's more private and secure for you as a person (if your government isn't spying on you through secret arrangements in violation of your public rights).