Let me start this post by stating that I am human. Well, so far. I might be changing into a wildebeest.
But assuming that I remain human, I have multiple digital wallets—two of which support decentralized storage of my California driver’s license.
But the California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) doesn’t just issue driver’s licenses. It also issues car registrations.
As does the Arizona Department of Transportation, which brings me to this Identity Week story.
“Arizona is among the first states in the country to transition beyond the digital driver licence (mDL) into full-fledged mobile vehicle documentation, officially updating its proprietary Arizona Wallet app. They have allowed residents to upload and store their official vehicle registration, title information, and insurance details directly onto their smartphones.”
But there’s a philosophical problem here.
- As I’ve noted previously, title (and registration) are primarily associated with a non-person entity (the vehicle), not a person.
- Yes, a person may hold the title to a vehicle. Or the title may be held by two people, in the case of spouses.
- But the title belongs to the vehicle.
- Yet the aforementioned Arizona Wallet app is held by people.
Shouldn’t a vehicle have its own wallet, and then grant access to elements in the wallet to one or more person wallets?
And how would the vehicle manage its own attributed-based access controls?
And what if the car gets mad at its human owner(s) for boring driving habits and not taking it to the car wash every week, and therefore decides to change its registered owner to someone else who is more exciting and car-loving?
I’ll admit that this is a flight of fancy, but it raises governance issues about maintaining non-human identities.
Bredemarket 