English | EN Our current research topic is called “Digital Happiness” and we’re exploring new ideas about how companies should interact with their clients and employees. This time we want to share the idea and vision from Kaspar Korjus – Estonia’s Gift to the World. Korjus shared his vision with us and our clients during our event In Pursuit of Digital Happiness in Brussels on November 9-10 2017.
Estonia can be seen as an example of the explosion of combinatorial innovation and the paradoxes that come along with those. Since its independence in 1991 the small Baltic country of Estonia has become one of world’s most digitally-advanced societies, and one of the fastest growing economies in Europe. Data integrity is a key characteristic of the so-called e-Residency project. While people can track who’s looking at their data – the police for instance – the trust in the government has shifted from ‘just trust them’ towards ‘just trust the data’. Another remarkable pillar of the initiative is the fact that everybody in the world can become an e-Residence of Estonia, giving them access to all kind of digital services like starting a (e-)business or opening a bank account. We interviewed Kaspar Korjus, Managing Director of that program, to explain how it works. “Envision this” he told us. “With e-Residency Estonia is building the first transnational digital identity platform in the world. A new fully digital nation for global citizens, build on inclusion, transparency and legitimacy to empower citizens globally and to achieve world- wide digital and financial inclusion”. Korjus added ”When you’re born at the wrong side of the border, it is just bad luck. But it is unfair. Everybody has the right to live a happy life”.
Residency and physical location are completely decoupled. e-Residency especially targets entrepreneurs who are fed up with the tiring administrative processes of their own government and offers to take away all friction with their superior frictionless alternative. “You don’t have to migrate or visit the country, it’s 2018; physical borders are so 2017”, Korjus explained. The Estcoin is Estonia’s latest eye-catcher: they want to become the first country to launch their own crypto-token as a service for e-Residents. Hows that for a vision?
