of the transcendent personal device. Next, biometric markers from the census differential identity database can be loaded into the secure core agent such that only when this biometric marker is entered can the device actually function. Et voila!, we now have a transcendent personal device that can only be operated by the intended bearer, and it can be used to project the differential identity of that bearer across the Web.

The transcendent personal device is provisioned within the secure confines of the Book of Life facility. Once provisioned, it can actually be shipped to the correct bearer through an unsecure communication channel such as the U.S. Postal Service. Moreover, it can maintain its trustworthiness once it reaches the hands of its intended bearer. This has many of the characteristics of a bulla such as we discussed in Chapter 7. It does have the very important additional characteristic that it can only be “opened” (that is, operated) by a single, specific person. Now, this transcendent personal device can be carried by the individual as a means of trusted participation in policy interactions. Since it is predicated upon the differential identity registry that we saw established as part of the census process, this device looks similar to a national identity card. However, it’s quite different. As we discussed in Chapter 5, the historical identity card is one of a credential issued by some authority which then retains some right to demand its presentation by the bearer. The transcendent personal device carried by the individual, if predicated upon the comprehensive foundations of Chapter 9, provides for a peer-level interaction mechanism established under an overarching covenant relationship. In other words, on behalf of its bearer it is able to negotiate the rules of interactions with well-identified individuals also enrolled in the differential identity system. During and following the transaction, it can maintain trusted records regarding the full breadth of the interaction. This facility forms a formidable bulwark for enforcing personal privacy in the face of otherwise unfettered institutional anonymity. For example, a useful transaction would now be to obtain from the appropriate trusted third party, for storage within the transcendent personal device, a copy of an official birth certificate.

In order to connect a birth certificate to a differential identity, the most obvious potential trusted third party would be a Bureau of Vital Statistics. In general, such an office exists in each state and through this office one can obtain a copy of a birth certificate. In fact, the National Center for Health Statistics, an office within the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, already provides a clearinghouse through which such vital statistics offices can be located within each state. So, all that is really necessary from a technical standpoint is a transcendent personal device that can engage in a transaction with such an office. What one needs to supply, via the transcendent personal device, is indexing information for a birth certificate and an authenticated digital differential identity. If the authentication process is supported by the transcendent personal device which in turn is limited to operating only when the correct biometric marker for the bearer is entered, then the vital statistics office has a highly trusted identification of the requestor.

The index information can be used by the vital statistics office to ostensibly determine the right of the requestor to obtain a copy of a specific birth certificate. The effect of this transaction is at least two-fold. It allows an experiential identity credential to be issued by the vital statistics office; that is, a digitally signed copy of a birth certificate. In addition, if the request is deemed to come from an anchored persona of the person actually named in the birth certificate, then it can create a signed credential that links this anchored persona of the requestor to that specific birth certificate. If a cross reference is maintained within the vital statistics office, then a birth certificate can be shown to be reliably associated with a persona anchored in the biometric differential identity registry.

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