Government paving way for digital IDs

People in Czechia should soon be able to use digital credentials instead of the paper or plastic ID cards that are now essential in dealing with the authorities, according to an amendment to the law approved by the government on Wednesday. Digital identification will not replace physical IDs, but people will no longer have to carry them. The digital document will require a mobile phone app, to be developed by the Digital and Information Agency. People will send a request for identification through the app, proving their bank identity or other means of electronic identity verification. The app will then generate a code which the verifying authority, such as the police or the post office, can check in its own reader app. The project should cost the state administration about half a billion crowns to launch, while annual operating costs are estimated at around 50 million crowns.