[darkamaul]

I never realized how much complexity goes into a passport, the cryptography, authentication layers, and others are mind blowing.

It’s impressive that something so small carries so many trust anchors. I’m wondering how they will manage to upgrade them - for future algorithms without breaking compatibility.

[Muromec]

Passports and money are quote complex to be forgery-resistant. With internet existing it turns out, it's easier to discard the physical form altogether and only leave pure chain of trust digital form.

It already happened to money, it is slowly happening to passports and ids too.

> I’m wondering how they will manage to upgrade them - for future algorithms without breaking compatibility.

The same way as always -- introduce a new version of the passport, which can as well be verified through a completely different system altogether.

[lxgr]

What's even more impressive is that this technology has been around for decades!

> I’m wondering how they will manage to upgrade them - for future algorithms without breaking compatibility.

Just like all other smartcard systems: Very, very slowly. Credit and debit payment cards with a smartcard (EMV) chip have similar issues – even small patches take multiple years due to the relatively long average card validity.