Australia Post to create federal government identity concept
The same mob that wants to use blockchain for voting and decided to cut back on mail deliveries across Australia now wants to create the federal government's digital identity platform.
Australia Post has said it would team up with the Digital Transformation Agency to create a proof of concept that integrates its digital ID system with the Commonwealth's Digital Identity Framework.
"Our research shows these processes cost the Australian economy up to AU$11 billion a year in proving identity alone, and can be unlocked by making it easy, safe and secure to prove that you are who you say you are when interacting online," said Australia Post managing director and group CEO Ahmed Fahour, who resigned from his position in February and is set to leave the role in July.
"We envisage an identity solution, like Digital iD, could unlock significant benefits for everyday Australians doing business with government."
In August last year, Australia Post detailed an idea to move into the business of running elections, and using the blockchain as a central pillar of its plan.
"The emergence of cryptocurrencies on the technology known as blockchain have highlighted opportunities to repurpose that technology to capture various digital transactions in immutable, distributed, and secure ways," Australia Post state director Victorian Government and Tasmania Tim Adamson said at the time.
"In many ways, voting is an ideal use case for blockchain technology application beyond cryptocurrency."
"With demand for digitisation high and technology shifts opening up new approaches, we believe that now is the time to solve the digital voting challenge."
For the six months to December, Australia Post recorded AU$131 million in after-tax profit.