What’s a signature for?

I recently drove across town to pick up some paperwork that could have been sent to me via email or fax.

I also recently drove a friend to the DMV to pick up her new license, when it could just have easily been sent to her home by mail.

And just yesterday, I printed a 36-page document to sign the last page in ink (because apparently a digital one wouldn’t do).

It’s easy to rant about needless paperwork. About the complexity it creates. And the procedural hassle of having to go somewhere to get something, or to print something to sign it.

That’s not what this post is for. What it is for is to gently remind you—and by you I mean us, dear reader—that what a signature is for is to communicate something.

A signature is simply an agreed-upon means of authentication.

That if we can agree that a digital signature is just as (if not more) legitimate as one in ink, or that a digital ID (a license, a credit card, a birth certificate, whatever) is just as permissible as a ‘real’ one, then maybe we can spend a little less time wasting time and more time doing things worthy of it.