I've been thinking about this the last weeks actually. Different government agencies keep sending me short personal codes for their website, allowing me to handle for example my student loans via their website. Whith just a web of trust in this, you could email a bank person or send your tax declaration and so on. A system with personal codes (often short, say four digits) sent to your registered home adress is rubbish. Not flexible, not secure.

I'd be your first customer in the GPG Bank & Authorities Inc. :) I might note though that I have great trust in my solution for online banking, I've been supplied with a OTP (so I am told) activated by a pin code, that I use to log in and do transactions. UlrikSverdrup

Congratulations! You've just proven that the US banking system is a piece of crap. But we all knew that already, didn't we? ;-) Here in Belgium, I can pay with a credit card if I /want/ to, but I usually don't. Most places allow me to pay with a debit card, which requires the use of a smartcard. It's not GPG, but it's PKI, and pretty safe. WouterVerhelst