OAuth exists and can be used to confirm someone's identity by linking their Google account.

To be fair, I wouldn't want my google account linked to my dating profile. Aggregating services has risks too.

Maybe secondary google account.

Yea, but then what I have to upload my passport through a service linked to that secondary. It's not really tenable.

Linking a Google account doesn't confirm your identity, though. It just confirms that you created a Google account with a particular name.

A Google account does nothing to prove identity

Government is the worst possible solution to every problem.

(not an attack on you. I have to say that every time I see someone say anything along the lines of "the government should do it")

Government is made the worst possible solution thanks to lobbying and lawyers. It doesn't have to be this way.

I would rather see an FDPA (Federal Data Protection Administration) which goes after people who get this stuff wrong.

when I worked for the government, within 2 months they had leaked all of my data to the black market.

Governments should not be confirming shit.

The government already has all your data so I'm not sure who you think should be confirming identity.

and my point is that they leak it. So it's hardly useful to have them both house and confirm the data when they can't house it properly.

They'll be confirming data that is publicly available.

But what additional data are you worried about them having?

If a private company can't do it. You can bet double or nothing that the government can't do it:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43996307