How would a nation-state provide an API for its citizens to verify their legal identity online?

Question

An official nation-state institution, like the Swedish Skatteverk, could easily let their citizens verify themselves online. O-auth tokens could be created by the nation-state institution, generated server-side, and these tokens could be used to verify legal identity within the app-space.

What kind of APIs do nation-states have for this?

Example market: there's a host of services that right now scan people's passports, coinbase.com, snapswap.us, and these could instead use o-auth tokens generated server-side.

Perhaps some of these programs have online verification systems? — Neil Smithline, Jul 16 '15 at 20:22
@schroeder: I have made the question "non-trivial" by asking "how" rather than "whether," and was wondering if it can be re-opened in its current form. The answer (and comment) are still responsive. — Tom Au, Aug 26 '15 at 15:35

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered Jul 16 '15 at 17:54

0

an official nation-state institution [...] could easily let their citizens verify themselves online. [...] do any nation-states have APIs for this?

Yes, Germany has, as far as I understand, pretty much what you're describing:

https://www.ausweisapp.bund.de/startseite/

However, I don't think it's foolproof, since identity cards can be stolen on the matter-side, and on the data-side a rogue app could log the data.

answered Jul 16 '15 at 17:54

Atsby

1,148
8
6

This also sounds similar to Nem ID in Denmark. – AndyMac Jul 16 '15 at 19:05

How would a nation-state provide an API for its citizens to verify their legal identity online?

1 Answers1

Linked