Digital ID now possible for residents of the city

Last July it was reported how the city of Zug was looking to provide all those who wanted it with a digital ID. With a test phase having proven successful, its implementation is possible forthwith.
 
It was pure coincidence that yesterday, Simonetta Sommaruga, the federal councillor who heads the Federal Department of Justice and Police, announced that the country has plans to unfurl this system at state level, while, as mentioned, Zug, one step ahead, is ready to implement it from today.
 
It is through the expertise of the Consensys-uPort company of Zug, that of the ti&m firm in Zurich in addition to the Institute of Financial Services of the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts as well as the Department of IT at the city of Zug that the system has been able to be set up. To register, residents must first go to the log-in portal of the city of Zug, on https://stadtzugid.zg.ch., and download the uPort-App which is free of charge.
 
As previously reported, this app on a smartphone will actually operate like a personalised luggage-locker, where data about one’s person, such as name, date of birth, home town and proof of identity, such as the number on one’s ID card, can be stored, just as at the registry office. Then, within a certain period of time, one must present oneself at the registry office in person with smartphone and physical proof of ID, on one occasion only, to have one’s digital identity certified. The whole thing then works with the scanning in of a QR (quick response) code. While this may sound rather complicated, it can all be done within minutes.
 
For the first time anywhere in the world, a real person will be able to have a digital identity certified by a public body, a civic authority. One big advantage of digital identity is that no password is needed and that all personal details are kept confidential on the app, a key to the data being kept on a blockchain, or decentralised databanks, through which all sorts of things could be administered, including virtual money. Another big difference is that there is no central databank; data is stored on various servers in a decentralised way. A further advantage with all this is that a blockchain cannot be subsequently tampered with.
 
Speaking in July when asked about the security of the system, mayor Dolfi Müller said that as the city had had a positive experience with the bitcoin, the city accepting this crypto-currency as payment for services in relation to residents’ registration matters up to the value of CHF 200. It was felt only right, therefore, to look at the possibility of the introduction of digitisation of citizens’ identity in a serious way, too.
 
It is hoped, therefore, that, from February of 2018, services such as e-voting, the booking of long-term car-parking facilities, the loan of books from the library or the hire of bicycles, for example, will all be able to be administered through this system.