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One of Estonia's First 'e-Residents' Explains What It Means To Have Digital Citizenship
An anonymous reader shares a report from Quartz, written by Estonian e-Resident April Rinne: In 2014, Estonia, a country previously known as much for its national singing revolution as anything else, became the first country in the world to launch an e-Residency program. Once admitted, e-Residents can conduct business worldwide as if they were from Estonia, which is a member of the EU. They are given government-issued digital IDs, can open Estonian bank and securities accounts, form and register Estonian companies, and have a front-row seat as nascent concepts of digital and virtual citizenship evolve. There is no requirement to have a physical presence in Estonia. [...] Three years in, what I find most incredible about e-Residency is that it actually works.
E-Residency was appealing to me for several reasons (none of which include dodging the law, taxes, or other civic responsibilities). I have Finnish heritage and for many years was intrigued by Finland's "smaller neighbor." And, I'd just joined an Estonian startup as an advisor. Becoming an e-Resident would allow me to receive payment from clients in Euros from any company without worrying about currency fluctuations, and to own shares in the company (previously this would have required various administrative work-arounds). [...] At a basic level, e-Residency makes working overall simpler and, ideally, more streamlined. This plays out in many ways, depending on the type of worker or organization. For example, many bona fide small- and mid-sized companies in other regions simply could not get access to European markets. The costs of entry and other requirements made it prohibitively cumbersome. E-Residency gives them a new avenue to do this; they still have to prove their merits, but the playing field is more level. For independent entrepreneurs, especially those working in different countries, Estonia makes the entire process of establishing and maintaining a small business easier, faster and more affordable. In my case, I'm able to transact, bank, and sign documents easily. I still maintain my U.S. presence -- because a non-trivial amount of my portfolio is in the U.S., and I maintain a range of local commitments and community -- but many of my fellow e-Residents have shifted their entire enterprise to Estonia. In conclusion, Rinne notes the imperfections of the residency: "multiple times I had to disable firewalls to get digital services to work, and the e-Residency team discovered a potential bug in late 2017 which led them to deactivate all ID cards until they could be updated through the internet." All in all the experience has been "useful beyond measure," Rinne writes. "It has enabled me to re-think not only how I work, but also the many ways in which the world of work itself is changing and emerging opportunities for the future."
E-Residency was appealing to me for several reasons (none of which include dodging the law, taxes, or other civic responsibilities). I have Finnish heritage and for many years was intrigued by Finland's "smaller neighbor." And, I'd just joined an Estonian startup as an advisor. Becoming an e-Resident would allow me to receive payment from clients in Euros from any company without worrying about currency fluctuations, and to own shares in the company (previously this would have required various administrative work-arounds). [...] At a basic level, e-Residency makes working overall simpler and, ideally, more streamlined. This plays out in many ways, depending on the type of worker or organization. For example, many bona fide small- and mid-sized companies in other regions simply could not get access to European markets. The costs of entry and other requirements made it prohibitively cumbersome. E-Residency gives them a new avenue to do this; they still have to prove their merits, but the playing field is more level. For independent entrepreneurs, especially those working in different countries, Estonia makes the entire process of establishing and maintaining a small business easier, faster and more affordable. In my case, I'm able to transact, bank, and sign documents easily. I still maintain my U.S. presence -- because a non-trivial amount of my portfolio is in the U.S., and I maintain a range of local commitments and community -- but many of my fellow e-Residents have shifted their entire enterprise to Estonia. In conclusion, Rinne notes the imperfections of the residency: "multiple times I had to disable firewalls to get digital services to work, and the e-Residency team discovered a potential bug in late 2017 which led them to deactivate all ID cards until they could be updated through the internet." All in all the experience has been "useful beyond measure," Rinne writes. "It has enabled me to re-think not only how I work, but also the many ways in which the world of work itself is changing and emerging opportunities for the future."
"I'm from a land called secret Estonia
Nobody knows where it's at "
Anyone who has played Burnout Paradise knows all about Estonia.
https://youtu.be/K6SvTAzZlLw
You are welcome on my lawn.
So does that mean I could work in any EU country for an unlimited amount of time?
Your ad here. Ask me how!
Inner-city neighborhoods crammed with illegal e-aliens running cheap PCs, chattering away in Visual Basic ("Build the firewall!"). Coal-fueled mob servers churning out Bitcoin. Dismal landfills overflowing with the world's discarded ones and zeros. Homeless burned-out developers wearing bubble wrap against the winter chill, huddled around flaming barrels of obsolete O'Reilly Manual editions.
For every digital heaven, there's a digital hell.
Getting paid in Euro when you already live in a country that has EUR is not that spectacular...
Quoth the fine summary:
I have Finnish heritage... ... I still maintain my U.S. presence...
She's not a citizen of Finland--she's an American of Finnish descent.
Il n'y a pas de Planet B.
Also, April isn't a Finnish first name. The surname Rinne is Finnish.
By now, the whole country has basically been forced to get a 2FA Token (which you can only use for banking or state stuff, it's not as if I can couple it to auth to my ssh servers). Technically they call it a signing server token, so - if I understand it correctly - a server signs on your behalf if you authenticate right. It is also immensely funny when their service is down.
At least that thing works with non-Microsoft systems, so that's good.
Ahhh...the great dumpster continuum. Many a free computer will be found there. -- sowth (748135)
I first welcomed Estonia's online program, which is truly unique and remarkable. It's very modern. But over the time, I've become more wary of it.
The problem is that like for all Baltic country's the biggest threat for Estonia is currently Russia - which has unfortunately demonstrated multiple times recently that they have no moral problems with invading neighbouring countries, undermining their political system, or annexing large parts of them. NATO can protect Estonia against a physical attack, although in numbers the NATO forces are spread dangerously thin. However, there is a real potential for dangerous online attacks, including e.g. messing with e-voting systems and other central government services.
Of course, Estonian authorities are fully aware of that, but without their fault endpoint security is overall so bad that there is reason to worry that they might be unable to prevent a serious attack some day.
.... like in digital anal exam.
I do not believe in karma. "Funny"=-6. Do good and forbid evil. Yours, Oft-Offtopic Flamebaiting Troll.
Please be aware that e-Residency does not confer citizenship, tax residency, residence or right of entry to Estonia or to the European Union.
And they made Elbonia pay for it.
I live in Belgium, but have a bank account in Spain as well as in Belgium because I have property there. Bit easier that way (although I could do it without it).
To be able to open a bank account, you need to have an NIE (National number). That you request at the embassy and 6 weeks later you get your number. With that you can do anything you like, regardless of where you live.
OTOH my sister who lives in Germany wanted to open a bank account in Belgium, but the bank demanded that you had an address in Belgium. I have not asked other banks, as the need for it has past, but it might also depend on the bank.
I imagine the reason they have it in Spain is because many people buy holiday homes. while they live in e.g. Germany or the UK.
More explanation about the NIE can be found here
It is not 100% digital as you still need to fill out papers, but afterwards it is just a PDF with a number on it.
For those in the US about the banking. Transfering money from one EU account to another will cost no money (unless you want it extremely fast) and will take 2 to 3 days. That to anywere in the SEPA zone. (Not identical to the EURO zone, nor to the EU zone.
That is yet another reason why we do not use checks. That does not mean checks are not used at all anymore, but they are used mainly for larger amounts. e.g. when you sell a house in Spain, you will get a verified bank check that you take to the bank.This mainly so all can be done at the same day at the notary with the handing over of keys and ownership.
Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
That is yet another reason why we do not use checks.
I think you'll find that a lot of people in Europe use plenty of checks when banking. However, cheques are becoming a lot rarer.
Whoosh! In Europe, bank checks will never go away but bank cheques probably will. Check != cheque in Europe or anywhere else that is not the US.
Erza Jane Maranda Gasoc - an Estonian e-resident from the Philippines owns a "graveyard" of tax-debt-ridden companies. Since the person has no ties to "real life" Estonia, there is almost zero chance the government will be able to claim these debts. The identity is clearly used as a front by local businessmen for tax evasion.