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I've heard the advice to use a passport card for this. It has your age, it has your name, but it does not have your address.

Of course passports are expensive and not everyone has them, but if you do, next time you renew, opt for the book+card option.

At 7-11, they will not - cannot - do this. Their pos system requires a scannable license, and will block even a 50 year old from buying age restricted items. N=3 stores for me, and only tested in NY.

Interestingly, I've never had anyone scan my DL barcode. About 10% of them look at my ID and manually enter it. The rest look at my gray beard, ask me for my birthdate, and key in whatever random plausible date I give them. :) (There's one store where the gray beard is enough and they remotely approve me at the self checkout, no questions asked. The misery of it is that I only buy NA beer and that still requires an ID.)

Defacing a photo Id(driver's license or passport) is technically a crime.

The optimal level of crime is not zero.

While true, this is not the context that idea applies to.