From parish registers to facial recognition: how states took control of identity, what it costs, and how to take it back.

Estienne Vernier writes on the intersection of cryptography, public administration, and human rights. Identity upon Request is the product of several years of research across surveillance studies, economics of government infrastructure, and decentralised identity systems. The technical architecture described in the book draws on the author's background in applied cryptography and protocol design. The pseudonym reflects the book's thesis: identity is disclosed at the holder's discretion.