I heard about this in a Hackathon.
The guy wanted to create a unique and universal username for every human.
I don't think it's feasible.
Thoughts?

That's interesting, can you explain more please ?

Take the human DNS as a data structure and hash it. I would suggest SHA256.

@ddephor you mean DNA ?

@samfreeman05 DNS is the German name for DNA, so yes, that's what he meant (looking at his profile, location Germany)

@filthyranter Oh well... Good to know, I thought I was either a typo or just someone doing too much networking stuff 😂

Yeah @filthyranter is right.

But I am wrong, hashing DNA won't work with identical twins.

So let's just enumerate. I'm number 0.

Number 1

Baby

@ddephor Maybe adding other seeds like birthday timestamp, name, gender, physical features will work. Eventually, it will be a long username hard to remember, harder than ip6 address. The main question is why?

Counter = 0
For human in people:
Human.set_username("user" +counter++)

@mohammed their idea was to create a unique digital identity which would be versatile.

Why would I want that?

@ayush221 And how would you use it? How do you verify usernames? And many more problems.

Makes easier to hack if everyone knows your user name

Iris or fingerprint data could do trick? Or I'm thinking wrong?but will hard to remember... We have to make some technique via which we can generate comprehensive usernames by using that data...

Username+hash(fingerprint,iris, username) should do the job

You could just make everyone choose their username at the age of 16.

@lazysnail how do you propose getting fingerprint data for people without hands?

@alyx thats why i said Iris too but never mind now you will say what about blind people xD

Isn't this why we have personal-numbers?

It's an ok idea to have a unique verifiable signature worldwide. Theres lots of uses for such a service. You could sign contracts in the service with anyone without having to post some signed papers around etc. The documents could even be hosted there in the cloud.

If anyone wants to build anything like this I'd be up for joining or helping out. For example with blockchain technology

It's possible. Not sure how reader friendly it will be

@esaysimyan I don't think it has to
I think just computers should

Wouldn't be hard at all to use a UUID. The amount of combinations would allow you to do it a billion times over.

Additionally, maybe a hash of First Middle Last, Location?

It's a nice idea to develop some sort of biometric universal passport too. Think about it; you could log into an online portal to check all your travels etc.

Then when you go to the airport you wouldn't need to carry any passport with you. They'll just scan your face/iris and check the fingerprint and you'll be ready to board

@lo98be but you do need to memorize it as well.

@vertti it would require a unified database (imagine getting access to that) and a kind of collaboration between countries that never happened before🤔

@esaysimyan if it is the hash of biometrics no
And it could be written on something like a smartcard

@lo98be yes I agree it's very ambitious. But the European Union for example pretty much has a similar system already, except thst you still need some physical card with you. If a technically capable startup produced a demo and worked well with the authorities in the EU it could be possible to start there.

After getting the EU on board it would just slowly expand to many, if not most other countries. Not even because countries want it but because it's far more convenient to people so people would demand it

@vertti ID cards are just recognized by other EU countries but they aren't all the same
In Italy for example we still have paper IDs while in other countries they look like credit cards
I can travel in all EU with my ID card (I don't need the passport) but that's it😅
That's all that I know, if someone knows more I'll be glad to listen

@lo98be yeah ours is a credit card size with a chip. However, even that would be unnecessary if there was a networked biometric system in place. In fact they still run you through that visual verification machine whenever you enter the schengen area, despite having a passport with you.

Moreover, a passport is far less solid and secure proof of your identity than your biometrics. The whole point of showing your passport is to credibly verify your identity anyway. In this day and age it's just starting to be an outdated method

Blockchain. Done.

@vertti I don't want biometrics for authentication. If someone "steals" the data and uses copies of it to authenticate as me I can't do anything about it. And that is no unrealistic scenario, this has already been shown with fingerprints and iris.

If username and password/PIN are compromised I can change ist. How do I change my fingers, iris, veins or whatever bodyparts will be used in the future?

@vertti I don't know what to say
I don't really care how I'm identified, that's a problem I'll gladly let to someone else​😅

@ddephor to be honest passwords or pin codes are far easier to steal than your iris. Of course every system has risks of hacking etc. but that applies to the current systems on place now as well. It's a risk that has to be dealt with.

Also, this is not really about what we want in a way. Even now Japan has been taking fingerprints of all fingers from every entrant for a long time. Yet people still travel to Japan. Even the EU takes your fingerprints now and you can't object it if you wanna enter. Making a better biometric system than there is now is simply just a needed upgrade

@vertti It would be technically feasible but using such a universal ID everywhere, probably even coupled with biometric data and photos of that user would be - and let me stress that - the most horrible and catastrophic damage done to privacy and personal rights imaginable. You'd be tracked on each and every step you do. Terrifying vision.

If you just need to create usernames you could go for:

Birth timestamp in ms + latitude of birth + longitude of birth.

That would be pretty easy to guess for someone, but since you haven't yet specified your use case we don't really know if this predictability would be an issue or not.

@Fugazi but would it be so different from the current identity verification system? Isn't it better for everyone your identity is solidly verified? It prevents identity thefts as someone can't just steal your passport and pretend to be you anymore. They can't just go and replicate your iris for themselves

Moreover, as I said earlier many countries already got your fingerprints. What I'm proposing is to lose the need for using actual passports to support identification because they'd be unnecessary

@vertti How much this impacts your life depends on the scope of use intended for such a centralized database. But expect the governments to squeeze every bit of information out of you. Probably they would even make the use of such an ID mandatory, so you cannot avoid being tracked anymore.
A little story from Germany: We have an electronic passport. When it was introduced the electronic components would be turned off by default. No one was allowed to read your data from it (NFC) without consent. Now they changed the law (midnight session in parliament, no joke) so that every german intelligence agency can use this data as they want. Combine a biometric photo of yourself with obiqous sec-cameras...The problem is: You cannot, NEVER EVER, trust the government on such things. Where there is data, there is strong interest in using it.

@Fugazi I'm from Finland so perhaps I'm a little naive with the trustworthiness towards the government.

But this whole system could primarily be produced for the authorities to use. Basically just producing a better technical and more convenient version of the current system and sell it for governments or the EU/UN to use. You think the current system is flawless? Identity thefts are rather common now even here in Finland. There are cases where someone forged your passport, impersonates you and goes to your bank to withdraw your account empty with no issues.

Either for the governments or make some sort of non-profit or commercial alternative for those who want to use it. For example a document signing cloud with verification. Kinda a bit like what Estonia is trying to do with their E-citizenship, just with some actual use for it

@vertti Yes, they can just go and replicate your iris for themselves.
It's easy as
https://sammobile.com/2017/05/...
or
https://theguardian.com/technology/...

Surely such attacks depend on the security of the scanner device and the manufacturer may make it harder to cheat on. But you can be 100% sure that there will never be 100% security

@ddephor well I don't think the immigration services use Samsung smartphones to scan your iris.

I'm not claiming what I'm proposing has 100% security. I'd still argue that biometric scanning is far more solid proof of your identity and is harder to take advantage of illegally, like stealing your passport (the current system).

Welcome earth user 7551231297! Your auto-generated, hashed-from-your-DNA, unchangeable username is:

horsedick69

@lo98be yea, I guess. But I'd like to memorize a username. Makes it one less card to carry around.

@esaysimyan actually something like that could make you carry just one😅

@lo98be true. 😀

Like using dome SHA standard thing?