Why don't they trust e-qsl? You have to go back to the 60's, and the days of Don Miller, and the inestimable Don Search, W3AZD, who spend much of his life at ARRL checking cards for forgeries.

So Jon Bloom of ARRL staff, and others, came up with the Logbook of the World concept, which I guess works, but there are a lot of people who don't like it or complain about it. You should be able to find info on it at the ARRL web site.

Personally? I think the supposed "importance" of the award programs such as DXCC has grown way out of hand to the point of obsessiveness. Surely, in the end, it's just a piece of paper. I have an entire wall full of contesting, DX, and other awards, and I'm sure that within a week of the day I die, they'll all be out on the curb with the garbage. Does it really matter to the extent that it does?