Tech

Why does proving my age online require handing my browsing history to a stranger?

Opportunity

Laws in the US, UK, and EU now require websites to verify visitor age, and every production deployment routes that check through a centralized age-verification provider. That provider sees which users visited which sites and accumulates a detailed browsing record tied to real identity. Zero-knowledge proof alternatives exist in research and the EU is embedding one in its EUDI wallet, but the wallet spec will not be finalized before December 2026, covers only EU residents, and no comparable infrastructure exists elsewhere. The practical choice today is between lying about your age and surrendering your browsing history to a company you did not choose.

Why it matters

Privacy-preserving age verification is the missing primitive for an internet that is rapidly becoming age-gated by law.

機会をどう評価するか

The Opportunity Score is my own read, not a measurement: how much it hurts, how often it bites, and how little exists to solve it today. Higher means I think it is more worth building.

深刻度7/10

How much pain it causes when it shows up.

頻度9/10

How often people actually run into it.

ホワイトスペース7/10

How little good tooling exists for it today.