Estonia opens its digital borders
Estonia has invited people to register as e-residents – a step towards a world where a person’s identity online matters just as much as their identity offline
ESTONIA flung open its digital borders last week. The eastern European country invited anyone, anywhere, to open a bank account or start a business. By the end of the year, anyone with an Internet connection will be able to live their financial life in Estonia, all without being physically present.
Such e-residency, as it is known, is a step towards a world where a person’s online identity matters just as much as their offline identity; where the location of data, rather than documents, is more important.
“This is the beginning of the erosion of the classic nation state hegemony,” says John Clippinger, a digital identity researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. “It’s going to get whittled away from the margins.”
The idea of universal citizenship
The universal institutionalism began with establishment of United Nations in the last century and since then has generated, non-stop, international covenants and conventions recognizing ever-growing rights for humans, indigenous peoples, migrants, women, nature, etc.
In 1992, the signing of Maastricht treaty by 12 countries in Europe created the European Union. It also created European Union citizenship for each citizen of the participating country which is supplementary to national citizenship and affords rights such as the right to vote in European elections, the right to free movement, settlement and employment across the EU, and the right to consular protection by other EU states’ embassies when a person’s country of citizenship does not maintain an embassy or consulate in the country they need protection in. The treaty also provided for the introduction of a central banking system and a common currency (the euro), committed members to implementing common foreign and security policies, and called for greater cooperation on various other issues, including the environment, policing, and social policy. Today, the European Union has expanded to 28 countries in Europe.
Economics and trade is the primary reason for various countries opening up to each other as regional trade blocs and free labour mobility. It is the geopolitical dynamics and that of the hyper-competitive global market that are themselves accelerating the objective, material need to form regional integration agreements as blocs in order to be able to enter the global arena with minimum development conditions, and those blocs are socially impossible if they do not integrate regional citizenship. In the end, it will probably be on the basis of these extended citizenships that we will progress step by step, along a complex path, first as large regions of the world, toward universal citizenship.
Our perspective
The future of digital democracy sprung up from an unlikely source, as the small Baltic country of Estonia embraced technology and created a virtual state expected to reach over 8 times the size of its population.
This is the first time that a state itself extended a whole range of services to people beyond its borders and, in times to come, we will see nation states follow suit. Some of the services have already been or are about to be exported to other countries, though through private enterprises. Norway Post has begun doing business in Sweden, pushing Sweden and Denmark to form the first cross-border postal service merger five years ago in order to boost their competitiveness. Countries like Sweden and Denmark have begun exporting their welfare systems to others. Education, a classic public good, is also increasingly delivered online–especially when it comes to higher education, where many public universities are also major players.
In future, you might choose to get your Social Security benefits from Denmark, tax rates from Estonia, online security from Chile, education from the UK and income from China while residing in Greece.
In future, you might choose to get your Social Security benefits from Denmark, tax rates from Estonia, online security from Chile, education from the UK and income from China while residing in Greece.
After decades of crises and difficulties in most markets, businesses have a chance to make a comeback in all complex areas of their reputation as well as their corporate image and communications at large. It’s a great opportunity, which the corporations will not miss.
In future, people will be active participants of change they want to see in the world together with businesses. Businesses will get involved in addressing social issues, and will make a greater, faster and more efficient impact compared to governments, as they will have the resources – from financial means, collective intelligence to technology – to contribute and make a difference. Even small businesses will get involved with local communities to address ‘here and now’ micro issues.
In return, people will reward the businesses with their loyalty and word of mouth evangelism.
Gazing through the crystal ball
- Government services will improve with time.
- There will be a larger immigration to countries providing better services for the citizens.
- New forms of governance with novel administrative setups are likely to spring up in private islands and previously unadministered landmasses. The elites will be the first to take citizenship of these new communities.
- Relaxed citizenship procedures will be provided by many of the developed countries as they face skill shortages, decreasing population and rise of elderly populations
