The national identity card scheme has gone quiet.

When the legislation was delayed by last year’s General Election, the plan was for the procurement to go ahead as soon as it was passed.

Finally, almost a year later than expected, the bill became law. But that was March, it is now May.

An optimist might hope that before launching into another multibillion-pound mega-procurement the government is having a rethink.

Computing has argued consistently that a government-centred, crime-focused who-goes-there scheme would be to miss an opportunity so gargantuan as to make the Millennium Dome look like Disney World. That view remains.

The government has a choice. It can spend vast sums on a public sector ID card scheme that promises little beyond a civil liberties row, an extremely nebulous impression of improved security, and a large white elephant joining the troupe at the media circus.

Or it can pursue a broader concept with infinitely broader benefits: a government-endorsed identity management scheme, for use by everyone – citizens, businesses and government.

The anonymity of cyberspace is holding back the internet’s revolutionary potential. Imagine a world with a guaranteed electronic identification. No more passwords to forget, no more phishing, no more grooming in chatrooms. And what about online payment methods, personalised content, computing on demand?

Nor are the benefits restricted to individuals.

In these globalised times, the UK knowledge economy is our only hope of competing with India and China. A government-endorsed digital identity would catapult the UK to the forefront of technological exploitation.

There has been some progress. There are now plans for the scheme to streamline government services, and there have been discussions about business uses, including speeding up hiring procedures or acting as door passes.

But such possibilities should be central, not fringe benefits. It is these that will make the difference, not only by helping defray costs – one of the scheme’s main detractions – but by making the UK a more attractive place to do business and a market ripe for innovation.

There have been much-vaunted changes in the government’s approach to new technology. Now is the time to prove it.

Let’s not have another Dome. If we are to have ID cards, for the economy’s sake let’s make them good.