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Comment by daveloyall | Hacker News Reader

For some time, I have daydreamed of various cool scenarios that would only be possible with a government-issued digital ID.

But in my daydreams, I've never considered a third-party government issuer. I don't see value in this beyond the value that I see in a corporate-issued digital ID, and that's hardly more valuable than a self-issued ID.

Obviously, Estonia has considered some angle which I have not.

You can become an e-Estonian!

They should probably change that to e-Stonian or something so that it's pronounced "eastonian". :) The "eee-eh" is awkward to pronounce.

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Which scenarios have you thought of?

A start would be to do anything an Estonian can do today online in almost real time. Founding a company online: 5 minutes and you're in business. Very simple tax and other legislation, so very simple reporting online - and getting tax refunds if needed in a few days.

But this should not be limited to existing legacy services we use. Think of what you could do anything online with an absolute cryptographically strong vetted proof, that it's you, valid across the world? That's very different from a corporate ID which has no power internationally.

* Will and testament

* Voting

* Facebook (or whatever)

* Spam

* Banking

* Contracts

* Jury duty (Don't think boring.. think sci-fi!)

* Taxes

* Whistleblowing

* Bar tabs

* Power of Attorney (This one has new meaning in this context. It's a technical thing, a provable act of delegation.)

* Police reports

Basically the same use cases as PKI, but if it were government issued, the common person would know what it means.

A conversation about a fender bender might include "Then, he drove off without e-signing the standard insurance form!".

I dunno. Like I said, daydreaming.

Seems pretty practical and doable for me. Probably more than half of these will be available to you via the Estonian e-residency.

The government and ministry under which this is is pretty open to ideas that need a change of legislation to make the e-services available and happen. So keep those ideas coming.

The thing about Estonian e-services has always been that while many other countries say it's not doable, Estonia just does it. Possible in a lean country of smart people.

Whistleblowing? Under your real name?

If leaked documents are non-reputable, then the nature of the game is a bit different, isn't it?

Estonian language is perceived as having uncharacteristically long dragging of vowels during pronunciation, so e-Estonian works just as well. I wonder if there is some kind of inside joke around that.

The name of the country, and of the language, in Estonian is Eesti.

Do they call this thing e-Eesti then?

pronounced ee'eesti

For some time, I have daydreamed of various cool scenarios that would only be possible with a government-issued digital ID.
But in my daydreams, I've never considered a third-party government issuer. I don't see value in this beyond the value that I see in a corporate-issued digital ID, and that's hardly more valuable than a self-issued ID.

Obviously, Estonia has considered some angle which I have not.

I think the angle is that it allows a business presence in the EU and Eurozone for essentially anyone.

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