Yes, physical documents attesting to identity do face this dilemma too! The ways they handle it are in fact very illustrative. Consider for example the Austral

Yes, physical documents attesting to identity do face this dilemma too! The ways they handle it are in fact very illustrative. Consider for example the Australian system for proving one’s identity: https://www.afp.gov.au/sites/default/files/PDF/NPC-100PointChecklist-18042019.pdf https://www.afp.gov.au/sites/default/files/PDF/NPC-100PointC... To “log in” to a government service in person (i.e. for the person at the desk to accept that you are you for the duration of your appointment), you have to present at least 100 “points” worth of documents attesting to your identity. A passport is 70 points, a driver’s license is 40 points, and various other documents are 25 or 20 points. In practice the most common way by far is showing your passport and drivers license*. Both your passport (federally issued) and your drivers license (state issued) have an individual biometric authentication process required for them to be valid: they have a photo on them, and the official checks to see that the photo matches your physical appearance. So an equivalent digital version of this whole process might be: present a Yubikey (federal) security key (passport) with a successful thumbscan (picture matches), and then present another non-Yubikey (state) security key (drivers license) also with a successful thumbscan (picture matches as well). This logs you in for a single session that expires when you leave the page (valid for just the duration of appointment). By digital standards this is an onerous authentication process, and it only gets you a short-lived session token at a single service/vendor. Clearly, physical identity documents are grappling with this exact same dilemma. *: Second most common is showing your drivers license, Medicare card, credit card, and a recent utility bill/bank statement - four pieces of attestation!