> Multiple times throughout the hearing, Brazil’s Infraestrutura de Chaves Públicas system of citizen IDs through digital certificates came up as a potential mo

> Multiple times throughout the hearing, Brazil’s Infraestrutura de Chaves Públicas system of citizen IDs through digital certificates came up as a potential model for the U.S. as it moves forward. That made it sound as if every Brazilian had one of these, and it were the main citizen ID. That's not the case. Here in Brazil, the main ID is the RG (Registro Geral), which is an identity card made of paper, issued by any of the 26 states (plus the Federal District). Since it's issued by the states, a single person can have more than one RG. We also have the equivalent of USA's SSN, here called the CPF. Like the SSN, it's used as the person's tax ID, and is a national number. It's also issued as a card made of paper, but unlike the RG, it cannot be used for identification, since it has no picture or fingerprint. For simplicity, if you already have a CPF number when your RG is issued (or re-issued), you can have the CPF number printed on the RG card. It's with the CPF that the "Infraestrutura de Chaves Públicas" (ICP) comes into view: you can get a certificate associated with your CPF, and use it for instance to sign your taxes. But it's not required, and most people don't have that certificate, or even know that it exists. In my opinion, the reason we don't have the same problem as the USA is not some fancy digital certificate stuff, but the simple fact that the CPF number by itself does nothing: everybody also wants to see the RG card. And for income taxes, the electronic form also requires a number found in the previous year's income tax receipt. The income tax return will be deposited into a bank account of your choice, but AFAIK it only accepts a bank account where the account owner has the same CPF, and to open a bank account you need the RG (plus other documents).