I’d hate for the “government-name” verification to become a requirement, but I’ve long wished services would at least offer that as an optional add-on. For certain important accounts, I’d be eager to place my government identity on file with the company ahead of time.

The Americans have done something kind of interesting along those lines, as far as an in-person IDV option to establish e-government accounts [0]. You start account setup online, then take a barcode to a post office along with your identity documents.

I have to imagine it’s hard to make a commercial case for such a system, though… especially these days with so much momentum toward the approach I resent—that is, requiring ID checks just to be online in the first place.

[0] https://www.login.gov/help/verify-your-identity/verify-your-...

Now try and read it assuming that instead of a screw up, this user was actually hacked. How do they recover?

Honestly, if you are using Gmail as your primary email I could probably ruin your entire year. I could just try and hack you (not even successfully) and Google will just shut down your entire life rather than attempt to work out who's right.