This Encrypted Gun Registry Might Bridge a Partisan Divide
Researchers from Brown University have developed a system that could keep track of firearms while preserving privacy.
IN THE UNITED States, the idea of a federal gun registration database for all firearms is endlessly controversial. Gun rights advocates and libertarians decry it as overreach, while gun control proponents view it as an important step toward accountability. After decades of gridlock, and with an eye toward potential new legislation, cryptographers from Brown University have now proposed a system that could satisfy both sides of the debate.
They envision a platform that can be deployed nationally while also being fully encrypted and decentralized. Rather than a consolidated federal repository, each county would control its residents' firearm data. Yet officials anywhere in the country could still query the system, as they would a regular centralized database, for information about people or guns located elsewhere. Led by Brown's Seny Kamara, the researchers started the work in 2018 after staffers for US senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) reached out about whether such a project might be feasible.
I'm fascinated how they can spend so much time and and effort and still completely miss the boat.
