2 ms·

Plenty of use cases require proof of personhood. Voting, for one. Anti-spam as another. And most use cases in which you're required to present an ID.

JohnFen 3y ago
I don't think voting is a great use case for this. Surely, if you're concerned about fraud in voting, simply being able to prove the voter is a person is insufficient. It wouldn't stop double-voting, etc. Anti-spam? That seems like shooting mosquitos with missiles. And I doubt it would be that effective at spam prevention. Spammers will just start paying tons of actual people to vet the messages as coming from real people, much like how captchas and the like are circumvented. > And most use cases in which you're required to present an ID. We already have ID for that. And surely, in those cases, what is trying to be established isn't just whether or not you're human, but which specific human you are. I've also heard that it's useful to administer UBI (just to round out your list), but UBI is a thing that -- at least in the US -- is but a vague dream, not anything that's realistically going to happen anytime soon. And even if it is, I don't think a system that just demonstrates proof-of-humanness would be sufficient.
- worksonmine 3y ago
  > It wouldn't stop double-voting Why not? One vote per human is trivial. Just read the last entry before the poll closes. Solved. That's how we do it today, with paper ballots. > We already have ID for that While modern IDs have biometrics they aren't usually validated as such. Just a quick glance is more common. It can be circumvented and fake/borrowed IDs are common. > UBI is a thing that at least in the US -- is but a vague dream, not anything that's realistically going to happen anytime soon Only because of lack of understanding and FUD. I agree that the US has a long way to go but in Europe where we have working welfare system UBI would save billions in administration costs. We already have it but with strings and hoops. I don't think a country where an ambulance ride costs a monthly salary should serve as an example to that argument. That's like claiming police is worthless because -- at least in Saudi Arabia -- is but a vague dream, since they're so easily bribed.

JohnFen 3y ago

I don't think voting is a great use case for this. Surely, if you're concerned about fraud in voting, simply being able to prove the voter is a person is insufficient. It wouldn't stop double-voting, etc. Anti-spam? That seems like shooting mosquitos with missiles. And I doubt it would be that effective at spam prevention. Spammers will just start paying tons of actual people to vet the messages as coming from real people, much like how captchas and the like are circumvented. > And most use cases in which you're required to present an ID. We already have ID for that. And surely, in those cases, what is trying to be established isn't just whether or not you're human, but which specific human you are. I've also heard that it's useful to administer UBI (just to round out your list), but UBI is a thing that -- at least in the US -- is but a vague dream, not anything that's realistically going to happen anytime soon. And even if it is, I don't think a system that just demonstrates proof-of-humanness would be sufficient.

worksonmine 3y ago
> It wouldn't stop double-voting Why not? One vote per human is trivial. Just read the last entry before the poll closes. Solved. That's how we do it today, with paper ballots. > We already have ID for that While modern IDs have biometrics they aren't usually validated as such. Just a quick glance is more common. It can be circumvented and fake/borrowed IDs are common. > UBI is a thing that at least in the US -- is but a vague dream, not anything that's realistically going to happen anytime soon Only because of lack of understanding and FUD. I agree that the US has a long way to go but in Europe where we have working welfare system UBI would save billions in administration costs. We already have it but with strings and hoops. I don't think a country where an ambulance ride costs a monthly salary should serve as an example to that argument. That's like claiming police is worthless because -- at least in Saudi Arabia -- is but a vague dream, since they're so easily bribed.