Multi-Jurisdictional Legal Identity Assurance for Capability Gating: A Design-Science Proposal for Tiered, Reusable Identity Assurance of Natural, Juridical, and Machine Entities
Asking for ID only when it actually matters, not from everyone upfront
Most digital systems demand the same level of identity verification from everyone before they can do anything—like requiring a passport check just to enter a store. This paper proposes a smarter approach: ask for more personal information only when the specific action warrants it, letting people participate with minimal disclosure at first and proving their identity gradually as needed. The model works across borders and different legal systems, matching how much verification is required to how risky the transaction actually is.
Current one-size-fits-all identity checks exclude people who can't meet a high bar they never needed to clear, slow down every interaction with unnecessary verification, and waste resources screening low-risk users like high-risk ones. A tiered system could let more people participate in financial services and digital platforms, speed up routine transactions, and reduce the personal data collected and stored by companies—while still catching genuinely risky behavior when it appears.