User:Pinkelk/sandbox/Proof of Identity

The fundamentals of Personal Identity

Each individual human is exactly that - one individual.

As such, an individual in person can be unambiguously identified from another individual, by virtue of their physical identity.

For example, put two people side-by-side. One is person A, and one is person B. They are clearly two separate individuals.

But how do we know which one is person A and which is person B?

Person A has a set of attributes, which have values that may be different to the values for the same set of attributes for person B.
Some attributes are inherently possessed by the individual, and some are simply assigned to, known to, and claimed by the individual.
Some of these attributes are 'natural' (e.g. gender, date of birth, place of birth, hair color, eye color) and non-unique.
Some attributes are natural and highly likely to be unique (e.g. scanned and encoded fingerprint or retina pattern).
Some attributes are 'assigned', and also non-unique (e.g. First and last name, home postal address).
Some attributes have a lifespan that is different from the lifespan of the individual.
Some attributes are assigned and by some kind of convention, unique. For example, country passport number, country social security number, country/state driver's license number.
Possessed attributes can be measured on the individual in some way, whereas assigned attributes cannot.

How does an individual prove Identity?

In person, an individual can prove identity to some degree of certainty by confirming that the values of a significant set of the attributes they possess or can claim, match the values of the attributes of the person they claim to be.

The more attribute values that match, the higher the certainty that the identity is proven.
Some attributes carry more weight than others, because of their likelihood of uniqueness, and also depending on whether they are possessed, or just assigned.
The attributes that carry most weight will be both possessed and unique.
However, for such comparison and matching to take place, values presented by an individual need to be matched against some kind of 'control' - the set of values that are somehow agreed to belong to the individual.

Personal Attribute Bank

The full set of attributes that represents an individual is empirical - it exists in reality for that individual, whether measured and recorded or not.
Imagine a system which supports the creation and maintenance of a persistent record of the set of personal attribute values that represent an individual.
In such a system, the complete set of attribute values for any individual would include some attributes that are unique and possessed.
If a person can demonstrate that he or she possesses a significant subset of those unique and possessed attribute values, it could be considered that the person has "proven" to some degree of certainty that they are that individual.
A side-effect would be that the person can also be considered to have proven ownership of the individual's other attribute values that are not inherently possessed, but just assigned and known, and recorded to be attributes of that individual.
By assigning a globally unique identifier to the set of attribute values for an individual, we have invented a cyberspace handle to an individual, which could have many important uses.

Challenges

For any individual, where could such a persistent record be stored, such that it is trusted?
A blockchain?
What body can manage the assignment of globally unique identifiers?
Privacy
Who has access?
How are values set and updated?
Jurisdiction and legal status