Year-end Sale % OFF 
Abstract
While the digital layer of social interaction continues to evolve, the recently proclaimed hopes in the development of digital identity could be both naif and dangerous. Rather than just asking ourselves how we could digitize existing features of identity management, and corresponding financial transactions on a community or state level, we submit that truly useful and innovative digital identities need to be accompanied by some significant rethinking of the essential basics behind the organization of the world. Once digital technologies leave the realm of purely on-line or deeply local projects, the confrontation with the world of citizenship’s biases and the random distribution of rights and duties precisely on the presumption of the lack of any choice and absolute pre-emption of any disagreement comes into a direct conflict with all the benefits Distributed Ledger Technology purports to enable. Some proponents of Distributed Ledger Technology-based identity systems envisage ‘cloud communities’ with truly ‘self-sovereign’ individuals picking and choosing which communities they belong to. We rather see a clear risk that when implemented at the global scale, digital identity systems could be deeply harmful, reinforcing and amplifying the most repugnant aspects of contemporary citizenship. In this contribution we present a categorization of existing digital identity systems from a governance perspective, and discuss it on basis of three corresponding case studies which allow us to infer opportunities and limitations of Distributed Ledger Technology based identity. Subsequently, we put our findings in the context of existing preconditions of citizenship law, and conclude with a suggestion of a combination of several tests which we propose to avoid the plunge into a neo-feudal ‘brave new world’. We would like to draw attention to the perspective that applying digital identity without rethinking the totalitarian assumptions behind the citizenship status will result in perfecting the current inequitable system, which is a move away from striving towards justice and a more dignified future of humanity. We see the danger that those might be provided with plenty of opportunities who already do not lack such under current governance structures, while less privileged individuals will witness their already weak position becoming increasingly worse.
Highlights
The World Bank set up an Identification for Development program (ID4D) in 2014 (World Bank, 2018, p. 1)
In the context of how the use of innovative technology can aid in bridging the gap between the global north and south, the term “leapfrogging” is used (Parry, 2011), and it is not difficult to imagine such disruptive strides could be made in the area of digital identity once Distributed Ledger Technologies (DLT) systems are applied in large scale
We argue that when implemented at the global scale, DLT-based digital identity systems could be deeply harmful, reinforcing and amplifying some of the most repugnant
Summary
The World Bank set up an Identification for Development program (ID4D) in 2014 (World Bank, 2018, p. 1). Before turning to opportunities and risks of Aadhaar and similar Top-Down digital identity systems, we will continue to introduce case studies for the second and third category as indicated above When it comes to digital identity based on individual incentives, the Estonian E-Residency program has gained a lot of attention. Once the individual meets the requirements, it receives either currency, or purpose-bound vouchers (“tokens”) that can be used at merchants or for specific services (e.g., entrance to public swimming pool, sport lessons, etc.) that the backer of the fund wants to promote10 Since pilots in this area seem promising, it is not unlikely that such programs will become more common in many communities across the world in the years to come. Is the application demanding decentralization through distribution and built-in trust through transparency?
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary 
Published Version (
Free)
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
