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Comment by ninalanyon | Hacker News Reader

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ninalanyon·

So now I have to have a mobile phone?

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And one you don't fully own/control. Fully owned devices will be unsupported, obviously.

Sounds like what a government issued card should be used for, which seems fine

Could probably be implemented by a smartcard or yubikey-like device as well. Shoot, just build it into my state issued ID card.

Do you know how hard it was to get RealID rolled out?

And now you're going to tell every state to do it again, but this time it's got a chip in it so "just trust the government, man".

This will go well.

It will go fine, because everything you want to do will require it. Even if you don't strictly have to, you will be effectively ostracized. Transit, entertainment, productivity tools. Haven't you noticed that things that have previously been easy to do are much harder now, even before this has rolled out? Like providing a government ID to visit a museum, for example. Or getting an email address. Using claude.

They've had some practice now, so next time will go better.

RealID is completely optional anyways. Just like organ donation and using the internet.

I feel the idea of public key encryption could be done without a phone but the device locking makes it harder to transfer the token off device. Like the parent comment said, I think 90% is all we can aim for. Nothing is going to be perfect.

You can have an ID card. Just like for buying alcohol and cigarettes.

What do you think is the trade off?

You need mobile phone anyway.

Do I? And if so why?

Yes. Cover 90% of cases. Maybe browser and RFID reader for passport is also possible.

Identity wallets can be made to work anywhere.

Secure Enclave on a mobile phone, or an NFC smart card both work fine. It could be your passport, drivers license, national ID, whatever.

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