John,

The three bullets you suggest strike me as a collection of use cases, rather than a single one - even if addressed by a single solution.

I think a simple, straightforward use case that might be suitable for the blockchain would be voting.  The blockchain is excellent for preventing the double spending of Bitcoins.  If each voter had a voting token, s/he would only be able to spend it once each voting cycle.  Voting records would then be audiitable.  And with some added obfuscation of identities (for which there are several techniques available), votes could not be tracked to individuals.  The biggest fraud would be to have a single person register under multiple identities to gain access to multiple tokens.  But that is a current problem, not a shortcoming of such a system.

Jeff


---------------------------------
Jeff Stollman
+1 202.683.8699


Truth never triumphs — its opponents just die out.
Science advances one funeral at a time.
                                    Max Planck

On Wed, Aug 3, 2016 at 3:53 PM, John Wunderlich <john@wunderlich.ca> wrote:
Hi;

The article linked to below suggested to me one category of problem that we could consider for blockchains. It seems to me that in a generic sense blockchain technology is technology in the service of governance and transparency. And further, since Kantara is all about identity, the category of problem that the report may choose to focus or include is how can we design/build/implement IBCT's (newly identified acronym: Identity Block Chain Technologies) that have the following characteristics:

1. Facilitates appropriate levels of identity proof (only need to prove of age at a liquor store, but will need strong proof that I'm the full natural person when voting).

2. Provide aggregate transparency and reporting so that anyone - citizen or government - can see where and what kinds of identity proofs are being used by the government.

3. Provides individual privacy protection and audit capability. I can audit who has looked at my identity information and in what context, but I CANNOT do that for any other person.

I'm not fully immersed in the blockchain hype machine, but I'm fully aware that all this and more (but wait...) has been promised by block chain evangelists, but I'm not sure how seriously to take some or all of that.

Linked article: http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Passcode/Passcode-Voices/2016/0729/Opinion-How-to-make-democracy-harder-to-hack


Sincerely,
John Wunderlich
@PrivacyCDN

Call: +1 (647) 669-4749
eMail: john@wunderlich.ca


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