The entire constellation of digitalized services and solutions encompassed by the e-Estonia initiative falls into 8 categories, each aimed at a particular aspect of governance, finance, data handling, and such. These categories are:<\/p>\n
- \n
- e-Identity<\/li>\n
- interoperability;<\/li>\n
- security and safety;<\/li>\n
- healthcare;<\/li>\n
- e-governance;<\/li>\n
- mobility services;<\/li>\n
- business and finance;<\/li>\n
- education.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
The system built by the country provides the Estonian citizens and residents with electronic identity cards that allow their holders to digitally sign documents, participate in voting, check medical records, submit tax statements, and so forth. According to e-estonia.com, about 98% of Estonia\u2019s 1.3 million people have ID-cards. The adjacent e-Residency program allows foreign nationals to run a \u201clocation-independent EU business\u201d through the internet, including signing documents and accessing payment providers.<\/p>\n
\u201cFilling in your tax statement takes about three minutes. Everything is actually done by the Tax Department that probably uses AI or something like that. All you have to do is make sure everything\u2019s right and digitally sign it. They even tell you how much they owe you for your overpaid taxes, and you just tell them where to send it. You can sign it with your ID or your phone, the choice is yours, and everything is secure. You get the same thing when it comes to insurance, health care, driver\u2019s license, ID paperwork, and stuff. It never took me more than ten minutes online to do any kind of bureaucracy. Actually, it looks nearly perfect to me,\u201d <\/i><\/b>Helga, an Estonian resident, told forklog.media.<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
The country\u2019s law is also made online. Each new proposal gets to the e-Law online database for the Estonian Ministry of Justice, where everybody can see all the submitted proposals and amendments made to those.<\/p>\n
Similarly, the police and medics are also connected to the government\u2019s online services. In such a way, the emergency respondents can access the personal records of their suspects or patients, as well as coordinate and communicate with their colleagues. There is also a database and an information exchange system facilitating the workings of Estonia\u2019s courts.<\/p>\n
Unsurprisingly, there\u2019s also an online voting system called i-Voting. Since 2005, Estonians can vote online using their ID from a computer anywhere in the world, given there is internet access. As a deterrent against forced or bought voting, the system allows voters to cast an arbitrary number ballots in the given time, each new vote canceling the previous.<\/p>\n
The whole digital infrastructure is tied together with X-Road, a data-exchange platform and the less-noticeable workhorse behind the digital republic. Logically, the myriad of digital government services and agencies generate a lot of data. As there is no centralized database to hold all of it, each agency keeps the data it produces. X-Road reportedly allows entities within the ecosystem to exchange data securely.<\/p>\n
![\"Data](\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/x-tee-eng.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\nData exchange scheme showing X-Road linking parts of the ecosystem. Source: <\/i>RIA.ee<\/i><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n
X-Road is a distributed and centrally-managed system that forms an integration layer for the entire ecosystem. It appears that this particular system gave rise to one of the misconceptions about Estonia\u2019s blockchain involvement.<\/p>\n
As much so that the developer of the tech, the Nordic Institute for Interoperability Solutions (NIIS), published a report<\/a> explaining that the X-Road system is not, in fact, a blockchain. The misconception \u201cX-Road is blockchain-based\u201d is likely tied to the fact that X-Road utilizes cryptographic hash functions to link data entries.<\/p>\n
\u201cCryptographic hash functions existed well before blockchain so even if both blockchain and X-Road use them does not mean that X-Road is based on blockchain. Both bicycles and cars have wheels, but we don\u2019t say that a car is based on a bicycle just because the bicycle was the first one to use wheels. The same goes for blockchain and X-Road,\u201d <\/i><\/b>the NIIS report reads.<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
\u201cBut where is the blockchain then,\u201d keen readers might be asking by now.<\/p>\n
Admittedly, there are a lot of contradicting interpretations regarding blockchain tech in Estonia\u2019s e-services. Although, there is this one particular system explicitly using the word \u201cblockchain.\u201d<\/p>\n
KSI Blockchain?<\/h2>\n
According to the e-Estonia website, \u201cKSI is a blockchain technology designed in Estonia and used globally to make sure networks, systems and data are free of compromise, all while retaining 100% data privacy.\u201d Notably, the same technology is also used by the NATO Cooperative Cyber Defense Center of Excellence and the EU IT Agency (EU-LISA).<\/p>\n
\u201cEstonia was the first Nation-State in the world to deploy blockchain technology in production systems\u2014in 2012 with the Succession Registry kept by the Ministry of Justice,\u201d <\/i><\/b>reads the PWC\u2019s \u201cEstonia\u2014the Digital Republic Secured by Blockchain\u201d <\/i>report<\/i><\/a>, briefly describing KSI Blockchain,\u00a0<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
The developer of KSI (Keyless Signature Infrastructure), Guardtime<\/a>, claims<\/a> that the technology does involve blockchain, albeit with a few caveats.<\/p>\n
\u201cUnlike traditional digital signature approaches, e.g.. Public Key Infrastructure (PKI), that depend on asymmetric key cryptography, KSI uses only hash-function cryptography, allowing verification to rely only on the security of hash-functions and the availability of a public ledger commonly referred to as a blockchain.\u201d<\/b><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Conveniently, the term \u201cblockchain\u201d is also defined. In this case, it is a \u201cdistributed public record of events; an append-only record of events where each new event is cryptographically linked to the previous. New entries are created using a distributed consensus protocol.\u201d The creators imply that the KSI Blockchain system satisfies this definition.<\/p>\n
The KSI Blockchain doesn\u2019t store data, but the hash-values calculated for particular pieces of data in the ecosystem. As hashes usually do, these values can represent the data in a unique way, so they can be used as proof that the data hasn\u2019t been tampered with.<\/p>\n
\u201cData never leaves the system; only hash is sent to blockchain service. As no data is stored on the KSI Blockchain, it can scale to provide immutability for petabytes of data, every second,\u201d <\/i><\/b>states PWC\u2019s <\/i>report<\/i><\/a>.<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Indeed, the system is claimed<\/a> to be able to process 1012 entries per second. That\u2019s nothing to shake a stick at. The developers have achieved this feat by limiting the number of participants in the system, which allows \u201cto achieve consensus synchronously, eliminating the need for Proof of Work and ensuring settlement can occur within one second.\u201d So, there should be some consensus algorithm and not a computation-intensive one.<\/p>\n
Back in 2017, David Gerard, a cryptocurrency journalist, made<\/a> a series of suggestions as to whether KSI Blockchain should be called a blockchain. He noted that \u201cthe blockchain bit of KSI\u201d is probably the glorified Merkle tree<\/a>.<\/p>\n
According to a PDF<\/a> on Guardtime\u2019s KSI, their blockchain is, in fact, a published calendar Merkle tree, also referred to as a hash calendar.<\/p>\n
\u201cCalendar Merkel tree is distributed publicly\u2014it is the \u2018blockchain database,\u201d<\/i><\/b> the document reads.<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Notably, the KSI Blockchain technology is said<\/a> to have been created back in 2007. This fact doesn\u2019t sound right, given that Satoshi\u2019s whitepaper wasn\u2019t even out there yet. Although, the word \u201cblockchain\u201d is occasionally used rather liberally<\/a> since the tech got picked up. It is likely that it was retroactively applied to a certain scope of technologies that evolved into today\u2019s KSI Blockchain.<\/p>\n
It Works, Blockchain or Not<\/h2>\n
With the lack of substantial technical details and arbitrary usage of the term \u201cblockchain,\u201d the question of whether KSI Blockchain is, in fact, a blockchain, gets uncomfortably close to a theological discussion. What appears to be more important is the difference Estonia\u2019s digital ecosystem makes for its own citizens and foreign residents.<\/p>\n
In this regard, the e-Estonia website boasts a range of accolades: #1 by start-up friendliness, #2 in the internet freedom rating, #1 by digital health, and entrepreneurial activity. Moreover, the initiative helped the once-struggling republic recovering from the occupation by the Soviets to overcome<\/a> corruption, eliminate<\/a> a lot of bureaucracy, and make it to the world\u2019s top positions in terms of human rights<\/a> protection, free press<\/a>, democracy<\/a>, and economic freedom<\/a>. As a cherry on top, the country is quite welcoming<\/a> towards blockchain and crypto-companies.<\/p>\n
Blockchain or not, it seems to do the job and we should have more of that.<\/p>\n
Follow us on<\/b>\u00a0Twitter<\/b><\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0<\/b>Facebook<\/b><\/a>\u00a0and join our\u00a0<\/b>Telegram channel<\/b><\/a>\u00a0to know what\u2019s up with crypto and why it\u2019s important.<\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
For an outsider, the stories about the digital age Estonians live in are fascinating. The country is widely considered to harbor the world\u2019s most digitized society, most technology-enabled government, and first-ever blockchain system serving a state government.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":8294,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"select":"1","news_style_id":"","cryptorium_level":"","_short_excerpt_text":"","creation_source":"human_written","_metatest_mainpost_news_update":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[25,567,35],"class_list":["post-8291","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","tag-blockchain","tag-digital-ecosystem","tag-estonia"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"views":"537","promo_type":"1","layout_type":"","short_excerpt":"","is_update":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8291","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8291"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8291\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8296,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8291\/revisions\/8296"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8294"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8291"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8291"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8291"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}