To be clear, I’m not advocating for online age verification. I’m very much against it in any form. I’m just curious from a technical standpoint if it’s possible somehow to construct an accurate age verification system that doesn’t compromise a user’s privacy? i.e., it doesn’t expose the person’s identity to anyone nor leaves behind a paper trail that can be traced to that person?


Bob would have to know and trust Grace beforehand. Grace could be the IRS, for example. The idea here being to have somebody who already knows your age vouch for your age.
That’s not about Bob trusting Grace specifically (that’s a premise of the entire operation), it’s about trusting that the letter Alice handed Bob was actually signed by Grace.
Well, if Grace is already well known, then her public key should be available.
That…seems so obvious, now that you say it.