https://tech.newstatesman.com/policy/voter-id-digital-identity

Last week, the government announced plans to introduce a voter ID. This idea needs to be looked at very carefully if the benefit, reducing the risk of electoral fraud, isn’t to be outweighed by the risk of impeding people’s ability to vote – a particular worry for disadvantaged groups. But either way, the animated debate is obscuring a far more fundamental problem: whether or not it’s used for voting, Britain needs a modern identity infrastructure. And rather than narrowing in on a single application, the focus should be on the broader, transformational potential of a private, secure and decentralised digital identity.

Such a system would result in hassle-free interactions between citizens and the state, radically simplified public services, and a far more effective model of government. But in order to get to this point, we must first recognise the byzantine nature of the system as it currently exists. We all need to prove our identities when accessing both public and private services, yet often this leads to endless loops of Kafkaesque bureaucracy.