Digital ID Soon Reality For World Population (Worthy News Investigation)
By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News
DENVER/BANGALORE (Worthy News) – A computer program that could provide digital identification for the entire world population is expected to be used by 1 billion people within 18 months, Worthy News learned.
The Modular Open Source Identity Platform (MOSIP) is helping nations to meet a United Nations goal to “provide legal identity for all, including birth registration by 2030”, developers said.
The program can establish people’s identities for documents such as biometric passports or voter registration. Border control, law enforcement, and social services are also using MOSIP software, officials said.
MOSIP was created in 2018 by the ‘International Institute for Information Technology Bangalore’ in India, home to many of the world’s computer experts.
It is backed by the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD). Other wealthy sponsors include the U.S.-based Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which pledged $10 million to support MOSIP “in its mission to create a universal digital identification system.”
Among other multi-million dollar spenders on MOSIP are Omidyar Networks, a “philanthropic investment firm” founded by Iranian-American billionaire Pierre Omidyar and his wife Pam, and Indian multinational Tata Trust, according to records seen by Worthy News.
1.1 BILLION WITHOUT ID
“MOSIP aims to provide governments with the tools for meaningful digital transformation, established on a bedrock of good principles and human-centric design,” said the Indian-based MOSIP Project on its website.
Nearly 1.1 billion people worldwide still lacked proof of identity, according to U.N. estimates, something MOSIP says it wants to change.
The software is already heavily used in Africa and Asia, according to sources familiar with the situation.
And, MOSIP recently partnered with Denver-based U.S. technology company Rank One Computing (ROC), Worthy News learned.
“The partnership will allow ROC to offer its industry-leading biometric matching technology to MOSIP’s adopting nations,” including ROC’s “face and fingerprint matching technologies,” the company confirmed.
Sharad Sharma, cofounder of the influential India-based technology think tank SPIRT Foundation, noted that about 100 million people in 11 countries have registered on MOSIP-based systems.
MANY USE MOSIP SOON
He said in published remarks that its “adoption will rise to a billion” within 18 months. The United Nations announced separately that it wants to see at least 50 nations implementing fully digital identification in 5 years by 2028.
That’s music to the ears of Dumitru Alaiba, deputy prime minister and minister of economic development and digitalization of Moldova, the tiny nation sandwiched between Ukraine and Romania.
Moldova has “half of its digital services already provided in digital mode, and it’s going up 75 percent by next year,” Alaiba said.
“We want to change the relationship between the government and the citizens. We are also working on a government super app, which shall be released in the coming few months,” he added.
Mistrust in the state is considerable as impoverished Moldova still reels from the $1 billion, around 12 percent of its gross domestic product, that “disappeared” from three commercial banks.
Yet critics wonder whether digital identification and related services promoted by the United Nations and the World Economic Forum will lead to more intrusive government interference like China’s Social Credit System.
Those fears appear second thoughts among the most vocal digital world supporters, including Alaiba, the minister. “We are not coming back to paperwork.”
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