Colorado rolled out a new electronic identification card that could eventually replace the plastic ones people carry in their wallets.

Gov. Jared Polis was eager to sign an executive order Wednesday morning allowing the state to start issuing the electronic driver’s licenses via a mobile app, but the practical uses are limited.

“There’s this obsolete legacy of carrying a hunk of plastic around even though your credit cards are in a digital wallet,” Polis said.

Coloradans can download the state’s myColorado app, scan their plastic driver’s licenses and upload their picture to have an electronic copy on their phones. The new-age ID will be accepted by most state agencies beginning Dec. 1.

However, in the instances where people most often are asked for an ID — airports, bars and during police stops — the cards won’t be useful any time soon.

So Coloradans who drive will need to hold onto that “hunk of plastic.”

Police agencies will begin accepting the mobile ID by Dec. 31, 2020, Polis said during a news conference at a state Division of Motor Vehicles office in Lakewood. Federal agencies, including the TSA, will not accept the mobile IDs. And it will take awhile for liquor stores and bars to catch up to the technology.

In the future, a cop or a bartender will be able to see a holographic image that will move with the phone as they turn it to see better. If they have poor eyesight, they can utilize the text enlargement feature to read better or simply scan a barcode.

Most restaurant owners haven’t trained employees on how to check digital IDs for alcohol or to recognize nuanced features like the ability to hide addresses or eye color on the mobile IDs, Nick Hoover, government affairs director for the Colorado Restaurant Association.

“Restaurateurs and employees need to be trained on this technology,” Hoover said. “I would expect that most restaurants will require physical IDs.”

Still, Polis sees bright potential in the technology.

There is “no question” that adopting electronic IDs will attract tech investors, which could strengthen the state economy, Polis said. The governor was confident more and more government agencies and private businesses will accept the card in the future.

Though Polis also theorized the new platform could curb fake IDs, skeptics say the criminal market will adapt.

With reverse engineering software, someone with decent coding knowledge and enough motivation can dissect the skin and bones of the app, Steve Beaty, a professor in computer sciences at Metropolitan State University of Denver, said. Fake ID purveyors may have to adapt their strategies but will find a way, he said.

And there’s the looming threat of a data breach, Beaty said.  As he put it, that scenario happening isn’t a matter of if but a matter of when.

Among the uncertainty, Beaty said, is what happens if the data is compromised and people are left without IDs.

“There’s nothing magical out there about dissecting an app,” Beaty said. “A criminal would have to pickpocket everyone in the state to steal their ID. When it’s all centralized, they just have to steal a single database.”

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