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Comment by willio58 | Hacker News Reader

I’m still waiting for the day where 100% of state drivers licenses are supported in wallet and anyone requesting ID are required to accept them. Quite literally the only reason I have a wallet these days is for the drivers license.

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> and anyone requesting ID are required to accept them

This is the big one. I've seen a lot of states where digital drivers licenses are issued, but many retailers are like "lol no, we want the card." It needs to be legally enshrined as identical.

I've had state government (including both cops and clerks) refuse to acknowledge my digital ID in my state.

Nope. I will continue to have a DL card so I can choose to leave my phone at home. When we are required to have our IDs on our person at all times I can at least not be tracked everywhere I go.

Be watchful for legislation requiring: * us to have our ID on our person at all times. * IDs to be issued in digital format only.

To be clear I don’t want either of those laws to be passed, but I’d like the option to have it on my phone and require police to respect it

> Be watchful for legislation requiring

This is the paranoia I don't get. These are not things that are going to happen in the US, precisely because so many people (like yourself) are against it, and it's a democracy and people vote. So putting your drivers license on your iPhone isn't some slippery slope.

> This is the paranoia I don't get. These are not things that are going to happen in the US

Many brown looking citizens carry their passport so as to not be excessively detained by ICE.

> These are not things that are going to happen in the US.

Citation needed.

> it's a democracy and people vote

But they never get what they wanted nor what they voted for.

I already said why. But to go deeper: the US has, and has always had, a strong libertarian and anti-government streak among a very large proportion of its citizens. And it's not going away. That's why the US doesn't have a national ID, the way so many other countries do. That's why adults are not required to carry ID's with them, the way it is in many other countries.

These political values are a strong part of American culture. The distrust of central government and authority has been around since the founding of the country. They belong to the most durable of American values.

If the US still doesn't have a national ID, or require citizens to carry ID's, and there's literally no political movement towards that, what on earth makes you think this will change?

Being able to put a driver's license on your phone is state-level. It's a form of ID we're OK with. It can't be mandatory because not everyone can drive. There's zero slippery slope here. I just want to carry the card I already have to carry when driving or flying, on my phone instead of physically. There's zero downside here.

Is that enough citation for you?

>So putting your drivers license on your iPhone isn't some slippery slope.

Yes it is. And participating is accepting it.

Very much, This! Up voted

I leave my wallet in my car, because the only reason I need it is for my driver license.

My bank, however, has one of those authenticator doohickies that I need to use when I make big transactions online. Pop my debit card in, enter the pin, and then do a little dance with codes back and forth on their internet banking to authenticate the transaction.

So I am in this annoying situation where my wallet is never where I needed it: either I'm making a payment and I need to go to my car to get my card, or I need my license and my wallet is on my desk where I forgot it last time.

Google Pay and digital wallets have literally freed up one of my jean pockets permanently.

Geniuine question, why can't you just have your license in your car at all times?

In the US if you need a state ID card and a driver's license those are generally combined into a single card. They usually only need its driver's license functionality when they are driving but often need its ID card functionality when they are away from the car and so it generally goes with them.

Ah, that's why, ok. Didn't know they are combined.

I mean, they don't have to be. You can often get a state ID card and a driver's license, but that's essentially redundant. More fees, more time, more paperwork. Things that require an ID just require some state or federally issued photo ID, so you can use a DL, a state ID, a passport, etc. When the extreme majority of adults are already needing a DL to get groceries why bother with another ID.

I wasn't able to find any states where this is the case. They all appear to have rules that say you can only be issued a state ID or a state drivers license but not both at the same time. Additionally federal REAL ID rules have the same requirement for REAL ID compliant identification.

https://legalclarity.org/can-you-have-a-non-driver-id-and-a-...

https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-6/chapter-I/part-37/subpa...

So I think the only way to have a government ID card and a separate drivers license is to get a passport card and a state drivers license.

Huh, interesting. It was legal here in my state until 2015, I didn't know that had changed.

Yeah but I need it when I buy a drink too.

Unless your state issues wimpy driver's licenses that fall apart if not kept in a wallet why bother with the wallet?

I just carry my driver's license, a credit card, a health insurance card, and an Orca card [1] loose in a pants pocket.

[1] Stored value card for several transit agencies in the Puget Sound region of Washington.

I’d almost certainly lose one or more of them if I did that. I use a compact wallet containing no more than I need and it also gives me a place to stick the odd luggage check etc.

Same, although most of the time, at least cops, accept a photo of the actual ID card/driver license where I live (Romania), at least it worked the last time I got pulled over.

I've been stopped by cops maybe once per 10 year. In that case I'm happy to pay $50 fine for failing to present license which they can check on their database anyway.

This is the way

Most of the world isn’t even covered by this feature yet, like the EU digital id and driving licences.

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