OpenID is not government-imposed Real ID. Instead, it's a bottom-up technology that saves you from having to create a separate username and password at each website you visit. Although such a technology is usually called "single sign-on" or SSO, it's not truly "single" because you can have multiple OpenIDs if you please. And the whole technology is voluntary in the first place (you don't have to use OpenID if you don't want to, just keep on creating usernames and passwords at every site you visit). About the only thing OpenID and Real ID have in common is the last two letters of the name. Visit OpenID.net for more information.