Need to prove you're a soldier?

Hall, a former platoon leader who hunted insurgents in Iraq from 2006 to 2007, said the pair came up with the idea for the service back in 2009.At the time Microsoft was offering free e-learning vouchers to veterans, but those wanted to take advantage were required to first go to the Department of Labor with documents to prove their military service."Doesn't that defeat the purpose of e-learning?" Hall asked.Additionally, many retailers offer in-store military discounts, but those same discounts weren't being made available online because of fears that people would falsely claiming military status to get the deals.

VA Innovation Initiative director Jonah Czerwinski said online stolen valor is a real concern."Making promotions available to veterans or providing discounts to veterans quickly b'es unaffordable if you have no confidence that only veterans are availing themselves of your offer," he said.To solve the problem, Hall and Thompson worked with the VA and the United Services Automobile Association, which had experience verifying people's military records to'ply with special rules for lending to servicemembers.

They created a'puterized system that can verify in a matter of seconds if somebody has been on active duty at any time since 1950.After a user sets up an account, ID.me serves as an intermediary to prove a record of service,They have a fascinating lithic culture similar to how PayPal might verify an online purchase.Active-duty servicemembers and family members can verify their status simply by sending a confirmation email from a .mil email address. Veterans might need to provide information such as their name, date of birth and their dates of military service, which is then checked against Department of Defense records.