> Would it be possible to create a universal personal code? I mean not > part of a corporation like Google, or a nation, like the USA. It would > have to be run by a totally independent organization, one that everyone > trusts implicitly.
Years ago, I had a business account at Pacific Continental Bank (now merged with Columbia Bank). I visited the Beaverton branch perhaps two or three times a year. At least two employees would greet me with my first name when I walked in. There are people with the skill of recognizing tens of thousands of individuals on sight. Combine that skill with vetting and training, and you have the core of an "identification company", whose mission is to verify your identity, and authenticate you to others. It would be too easy to hack online without the F2F component, but this could be a two step process, where the people at the service identify you, then implant a chip that can (indirectly) identify you by private-key- signing a transaction. I'd combine that with another device that visually or sonically indicates that your imbedded chip is being accessed. Of course, the chip signature and associated online information should be changed frequently; the chip might contain hundreds of digital keys, externally changeable with yet another digital programming key. For ordinary commercial and personal tasks, this would be a "nice to have"; for an emergency room doctor needing access to patient records Right Now Only, it could be a literal lifesaver. In any case, something you are, something you have, and something you know ... and NOBODY ELSE KNOWS, /not/ the name of your grade school ... are three good ways to identify you. Somebody skilled at knowing YOU would be a good fourth way, and how we've identified each other for millenia. Full disclosure: for decades, I licensed a technology for large dense arrays of truly random, permanent bits. With modern silicon processes, tens of megabits of random bits in an area smaller than the cross section of a hair. The bits can be permanently sequestered from external observation; one of our clients used the technique to encrypt physical fingerprints in hardware. Now that the patents have expired, it is open technology, so perhaps I should present it to a silicon equivalent of PLUG. Next year, after we get rid of the plague, double entendre intentional. Keith -- Keith Lofstrom [email protected] _______________________________________________ PLUG mailing list [email protected] http://lists.pdxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug
