Every American citizen should own a passport card (and a passport book.) A passport card is a convenient national ID and proof of citizenship. Owning a passport card removes the necessity to carry a Social Security card to apply for work. A passport card simplifies acquiring a REAL ID when you move across state or territory lines, and is much more convenient than a birth certificate (particularly for married women and others who have undergone a name change.)
The vast majority of countries have national IDs, and also require photo identification in elections. In the United States, acquiring a passport or passport card is significantly more expensive and normalized than acquiring many state IDs and driver’s licenses. However, a passport card is much cheaper than the IDs or driver’s licenses of many US states. Many states have created digital IDs, something which the Department of State has yet to adopt itself on the federal level. Unfortunately, these various state “digital IDs” are without exception tied to unfree corporate digital wallets, namely Samsung, Apple, and/or Google Wallet(s). A free, libre, and open-source software (FLOSS) implementation of the US passport card would provide many benefits and help encourage compliance with federal identification compliance laws among the several states and territories.
Firstly, it would create an open standard independent of operating system, which would streamline online age verification and ID processing when persons were on GNU/Linux, Microsoft, or BSD platforms. Secondly, it would simplify moving with our nation by removing dependency on the US Postal System for identification and ensuring such benefits were available in all states and territories. Thirdly, it would help phase out wildly insecure social security cards, reduce complexity for citizens who have undergone name change, were born outside US jurisdiction, or otherwise lack access to certified birth certificates. Fourthly, it would reduce the power of states such as California which enable and empower their populations of resident illegal aliens providing non-REAL ID compliant state licenses and identification cards by making it simpler and easier for US citizens to acquire federal identification, such that the disparity between illegals and lawful residents would be more apparent. Finally, it would encourage states without digital IDs to adopt a common FLOSS system, isolating the proprietary payment systems of Apple, Google, and Samsung from identification, and provide lawful non-citizens with comparable, state-level digital REAL IDs in general.
The Department of State should also work with foreign partners to improve international adoption of this standard, and simplify border processing and assistance to foreign nationals by their respective governments. El Salvador would be a particularly promising partner, given its impressive accomplishments in reducing crime within its jurisdiction and in adopting digital solutions. Likewise, reducing the bargaining power of proprietary, corporate operating systems and solutions in the long term will benefit America and offer resilience, and provide an incentive for alternative operating systems in use worldwide, such as Jolla’s Sailfish OS from Finland or Huawei’s HarmonyOS in China, to retain more FLOSS elements and compatibility.