[LINK] It's 2030, and digital wallets have replaced every card in our purses and pockets

[Scott Howard]

On Sun, Sep 24, 2023 at 4:49 PM Kim Holburn <kim at holburn.net> wrote:

> I do wonder though, if we get to the point that all important documents
> are in a single device, what happens if someone loses their
> device, it gets stolen or confiscated by a representative of a government?


Now you're starting to think about the right types of questions...

I'd argue a lost/stolen phone is no different to a real wallet - if
anything it's actually a better situation because there's things like PIN
codes and biometrics that make it more difficult to abuse.  Plus it's
generally easier/quicker (if a little more expensive) to replace everything
in your e-wallet than a real wallet.  OK, so a physical wallet will handle
being dropped on the ground better than many phones, so that's still that
problem...

In the same way that when I travel I have an extra credit card hidden in my
bag "just in case", I now also travel with an extra (older) phone - because
I've realized that if I was to lose my phone while traveling I would be in
a world of hurt.  Losing my wallet? Not so much.  With a new/spare phone I
can have everything, including my credit cards, license, phone number, all
back up and running within probably 15-20 minutes - something that would
take weeks or more to do physically, especially if I was on the other side
of the world.

However there are other problems, starting with the simple one of a flat
battery!  Some devices have partial solutions to this (eg, iPhones can
still do some NFC things even when the battery is flat), but it doesn't
cover everything.

How about when I want to show my e-license to a police officer, do I just
need to show him the barcode, or do I need to hand him my phone?  If I need
to hand him my phone, then I've just handed them my fully unlocked phone -
which is something you probably don't want to do...

How about my health insurance cards or even just contact details. When they
are cards in my wallet it's easy for an ambulance driver or police officer
to work out who I am and contact next of kin - but that's harder if my
phone is locked.

There are solutions to all of these problems, but they need the 'wallets'
on the phone to improve to get there.  If I need to hand my phone to the
police, I want to be able to unlock my drivers license on it, but not the
rest of the device.  (Again I think Apple has something here, but it
doesn't work when the license is stored in an app and not in the on-device
wallet).

So yes, there's still work to do.  I just don't think it's 7 years worth of
work...

  Scott