Digital IDs And Digital Currencies Are Coming Fast

Across the World, Digital IDs and Digital Currencies Are Coming

Rhoda Wilson

From Europe to Australia to Ethiopia digital ID systems and digital currencies are being implemented, bit by bit and in various ways.  Of course, Tony Blair and the World Economic Forum are doing their bit to push things along as well. And, it should come as no surprise that PayPal is one of the organisations working with the Bank of England to implement the UK’s central bank digital currency (“CBDC”).

Denmark’s new digital ID system risks locking some people out of society

Denmark has introduced a new digital ID system (MitID) that became the default on Thursday, 22 September. However, there are concerns that the rushed phaseout of the previous system (NemID) will negatively impact Danes that do not own smartphones and the digital illiterate.

Danes will need to use the MitID system to access financial and government services. When accessing services like tax filings, they will be prompted to use the MitID app to generate a code for secure access.

The NemID system also had a mobile app, but had alternatives for those without smartphones, including a physical code booklet and a handheld code generator. There are alternatives to the MitID app but Finans Danmark (which runs the system in collaboration with Denmark’s Agency for Digitisation) said that those alternatives will not be available until next year.

Finans Danmark Director of Digitisation Michael Busk-Jepsen told local outlet Politiken that the situation is “regrettable” and explained that “the code displayer and code reader has unfortunately proven to need a larger amount of analysis work than we originally anticipated.”

The lack of offline solutions will be a problem because digital IDs are required for online shopping in Denmark, and the NemID will no longer be usable for online shopping on 31 October. Thousands of Danes could be left without access to online stores, including grocery stores.

The European Central Bank (ECB) has announced they are working with five companies to develop prototypes for a DIGITAL EURO. One of these companies is none other than Amazon.

The other companies involved are the Spanish CaixaBank, the French Worldline SA, the Italian Nexi S.p.A. and EPI.

“The aim of this prototyping exercise is to test how well the technology behind a digital euro integrates with prototypes developed by companies. Simulated transactions will be initiated using the front-end prototypes developed by the five companies and processed through the Eurosystem’s interface and back-end infrastructure.”

Bloomberg reports that the European Central Bank will likely be among the first advanced economy central banks to issue a digital currency.

The digital Euro project is currently in a two-year investigation phase and officials say it could arrive as early as in a few years.

It would not be surprising if we will see digital currencies being tied to your digital ID. Perhaps to access your digital wallet, you would need to log in with your digital ID using facial recognition. This is not far-fetched.

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