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In Belgium the electronic card took off ~10 years ago but it is seldom used outside of official state matters (on the top of my head: when you move in/out, when

In Belgium the electronic card took off ~10 years ago but it is seldom used outside of official state matters (on the top of my head: when you move in/out, when you get married, etc. Basically used for anything that the state has to formally identify you). Administration are well-equipped with readers and you can file your taxes with it if you have a reader (everyone that I know and own a reader bought one for that sole purpose). We have two-auth for banking as well. edit: oh and some public transport use it to fill in addresses field faster when creating bus or train card. Basically it's a glorified unique address memento. It's not considered a failure though. edit2: Most importantly: id cards are mandatory in Belgium and most entities have switched to electronic card.

bergie 13y ago
Administration are well-equipped with readers I think I've seen the same in police stations in Finland... some kiosk PCs with a card reader and access to the various forms you might want to file there. Can be used to skip the line when applying for a driver's license, gun permit, or something like that. IMO, the couple of times you might do that in a decade are not quite worth buying and carrying the electronic ID.
- zokier 13y ago
  > IMO, the couple of times you might do that in a decade are not quite worth buying and carrying the electronic ID. I think this hilights the main issue with Finlands ID card experiment. Many places accept drivers license (which many people have) as a sort of semi-official ID. So most people had no need to get another card for ID, especially when it costs money and expired relatively quickly.