Electronics Weekly
Birthplace of Skype, ultra-capacitor wiz Skeleton Technologies and the $100 eResidency scheme for organisations in countries leaving the EU, Estonia is now the first EU country to run driverless buses.
It’s not been a flawless introduction – a red light was run, a bus failed to give way to a police car with flashing lights and a number of near misses were reported.
The 100,000 euro buses are only a temporary phenomenon. They’ll be gone by the end of the month.
It can take only 18 minutes to register a business in Estonia. Tax returns, 99.8% of bank transfers, voting in elections, signing documents and getting prescriptions are all done on-line. Checking company, property and legal records can all be done on line using a government-issue ID card.
Estonia ranks first in the International Tax Competitive Index, third in the Index of Economic Freedom in the EU (ninth in the world), sixth in Trading Across Borders, 14th in Ease of Doing Business, and second in Internet Freedom.
I am very impressed with Estonia, though i’ve never been there Fred, and am doing my Thursday morning post on Estonia’s digitial initiatives. I will credit you with the inspiration for it. Many thanks.
Fantastic, thanks Fred, the Estonians are showing us all how to do this digital bollox – good luck to them.
If anyone can do it, I believe the country that gave the world Skype and saved us all a fortune on phone bills can do it ! Lovely place too – I’ve had a some great nights out in Tallin, food and beer wise ….
Could be another first for Estonia here, after all why can’t a country use digital currency as opposed to printing banknotes ? Be interesting to see how this works out …
http://www.cityam.com/270692/estonia-proposes-estcoin-government-backed-cryptocurrency?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=170823_CMU
I think it sounds absolutely fine, Valgamaa, I expect the UK government to know everything about me anyway – when I go on-line to do my tax return it seems to know all the numbers already.
Well absolutely, Robetc, that’s exactly why whenever there’s a proposal to introduce UK ID cards there’s such a furore that they have to drop it,
Thst’s most interesting Valgamaa, sounds like a very good scheme
The interesting thing is that the ID card is used for so much (it is my library card, travel document, loyalty card in shops and many more things in addition to the official uses), but there one feature of the implementation that makes it accepted by residents. Every access of the data held is recorded, and individuals can check (on-line, of course) who has accessed their data. If it isn’t legitimate then you can report it and there are severe consequences for the accesser. This prevents improper use of the system and builds trust.
Not so much Big Brother watching as Big Brother being watched.
Can you be sure that the state doesn’t have a back door for covert surveillance? Sadly, it’s the first thing I would think of in good old GB.
And that lack of trust is why there is no ID card in the UK; the state can do many things with good reason, with or without an ID card. There are cryptographic keys in the cards that ensure secure communication within a whole state IT system called x-road that permits legitimate access but prevents casual access – but of course state security will probably have privileged access. But they have access to e.g. your tax returns to the Inland Revenue if they wish.
The ID card carries a photo of the person, their signature, residence number (like the UK NI number) and the cryptographic key. That’s all, so it’s harder to explain the benefits than explain what it is.