Am I reading this right, or is this really a very trivial application which basically boils down to "you can make use of the fact that the blockchain is a public ledger to link your identity to a BTC address, and then sign messages with your private key to prove going-forward that you are who you say you are?"

And not to knock it, because, true, it certainly be used to do that (but, of course, can also do *so* much more...).  It sort of confirms a suspicion I've had for awhile: obviously (almost by definition) the detractors of Bitcoinl clearly don't understand what it is and what it can do -- but I suspect that there are an awful lot of "supporters" (especially newcomers to the bandwagon) of Bitcoin who also haven't even yet really grasped why it's so revolutionary and what it can really do when its potential is fully realized.

In other words: wow, Economist, if you're impressed by the fact that Bitcoin lets you create a persistent provable online identity by signing messages with your private key, it's *really* gonna bake your noodle when somebody (like, say, Mike Hearn) sits down with you and explains colored coins and smart property and multi-sig transactions and autonomous agents, and...