The Australia Post (Australia’s national snail mail agency) has created a system by which citizens may buy Bitcoin without having to rely on offshore exchanges or complex processes. The transactions can be made in Australian Dollars (AUD) through Australia’s Digital ID service.
The Digital ID service lets citizens load up official documentation, like passports and driver’s licenses, to a centralised server system maintained by the Australia Post. Here, the documents will be protected by account passwords and 2-layer authentication solutions. Users can then use these documents as plug-ins in various scenarios, rather than needing to have their ID re-authenticated every time they need to perform an official function.
These functions now extend to cryptocurrency purchases. Australia’s Digital Surge Bitcoin exchange is one of the domestic crypto services now accepting Digital ID. This means that buyers won’t have to take selfies to get an account authenticated, or even trust that an exchange located on the other side of the world will take proper care of their passport number.
Says Digital Surge’s Josh Lehman, “For the first time, an Australian can log on to a computer, punch in their driver’s license or passport details, and be buying Bitcoin in minutes.” He’s speaking, of course, of creating a Digital ID for the first time. Once this step has completed, the ID needn’t be re-submitted ever again.
The Australia Post (Australia’s national snail mail agency) has created a system by which citizens may buy Bitcoin without having to rely on offshore exchanges or complex processes. The transactions can be made in Australian Dollars (AUD) through Australia’s Digital ID service.
The Digital ID service lets citizens load up official documentation, like passports and driver’s licenses, to a centralised server system maintained by the Australia Post. Here, the documents will be protected by account passwords and 2-layer authentication solutions. Users can then use these documents as plug-ins in various scenarios, rather than needing to have their ID re-authenticated every time they need to perform an official function.
These functions now extend to cryptocurrency purchases. Australia’s Digital Surge Bitcoin exchange is one of the domestic crypto services now accepting Digital ID. This means that buyers won’t have to take selfies to get an account authenticated, or even trust that an exchange located on the other side of the world will take proper care of their passport number.
Says Digital Surge’s Josh Lehman, “For the first time, an Australian can log on to a computer, punch in their driver’s license or passport details, and be buying Bitcoin in minutes.” He’s speaking, of course, of creating a Digital ID for the first time. Once this step has completed, the ID needn’t be re-submitted ever again.
A Centralised Workaround or a Seamless Solution?
Of course, no government service will please everyone, and some are concerned that the Digital ID method is not in the spirit of Bitcoin. After all, citizens will be entrusting their most vulnerable personal data to centralised servers, maintained by government actors. What’s more, each purchase will be recorded by government systems, forever linking the user’s Bitcoin purchases to their government registered digital ID.
This may be true, but it fails to take into account the different demographics who buy Bitcoin currency. There are plenty of BTC holders around the world who want to remain off-grid, as much as that is possible with a public ledger system like Bitcoin’s. On the other hand, some people simply believe in Bitcoin as a currency, store of value, and investment asset. They don’t care if anyone knows they own it, and they don’t mind paying taxes on their earnings.
This latter group will be well served by the government program, one which makes Bitcoin buying much simpler for newcomers. As this method does not replace existing methods, it’s simply another entry point by which underserved world-be Bitcoin investors can enter the space for the first time.
Whether or not you personally wish to use Australia Post Digital ID, those who do may still boost the value of the Bitcoin in your own crypto wallet.
Featured image source: Flickr