In retrospect, I'm not sure I was clear enough that my proposal was mostly a usability / familiarity hack for the general public. I agree this would only be an

In retrospect, I'm not sure I was clear enough that my proposal was mostly a usability / familiarity hack for the general public. I agree this would only be an option. Specifically, if I'm not in a financial position to own and maintain a smartphone, OR I'm not inclined to trust Apple or Google with my identity, I could acquire a (heavily subsidized?) smart card from the SSA office. If I don't trust a national office with my identity (see the National ID debacle), I can choose not to use the system entirely. Banks can continue to offer to extend me credit by verifying my identity manually. Specifically, I wrote: > no one can be held liable for—and credit decisions may not be made against—accounts that have not been digitally signed for any citizen //who has a verified public key.// My idea being that if Bank of America sends me to collections or pursues a judgement against me, I can take them to small claims for the statutory limit by easily showing the judge that (1) I had a verified public key at the date of the debt and (2) Bank of America cannot provide my digital signature showing I accepted the debt. I'm in and out in a few hours and clear $5K. If the proposal above had even 20% rollout/adoption, that's 65 million people who can sleep a bit more soundly at night knowing their identity is–not perfectly secure—but FAR more secure than our current system.