Identity Inclusion: A Digital National Identification for All

Governments offer civil services to their citizens if the citizen can identify themselves using a government-issued identification document. Several documents are often required, such as a national ID and driving license. These identification documents do not share data, or even validity, between different civil entities. Organizations like Sovrin, SecureKey, and ShoCard have presented solutions to ease identification using digital identification based on blockchain technology because of the benefits of immutability, transparency, reliability, and secure sharing of identity data. The solutions, however, all require the use of Internet-enabled devices to access the solution. To accommodate developing countries where smartphones and computers are not prevalent, we designed a proof of concept digital national identification based on the Ethereum blockchain that utilizes Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) for end-user communications. The solution gives governments control over lawfully required data while allowing the citizen to retain sovereignty over personal data using trust zones. Consequently, a citizen can use a single identity across multiple civil service providers, even with a feature phone.