The whole paper passport thing is just ridiculous in the age of ubiquitous digital communications and photography. Any official requiring your picture could take it and send it to an AI for identification right on the spot.
Easy in a "stable" situation like an airport with all the material.
Harder in anything less than a perfect environment.
Now what about between non-friendly countries.
In a warzone. On a road checkpoint. For the random checks at the gate of the plane or in the middle of the boarding process (for flights to the US they check it both at the gate and on the "boarding platform" now).
At least the paper things provides "something" when that's all you have to ID someone.
And what would be gained by that except spending a lot of money, needing to train existing officers and being reliant on a working internet connection?
There is since 2007, at the Bundeszentralamt für Steuern.
In addition, many decentral databases (such as local registration databases) can be comprehensively and automatically queried by many individual authorities.
