Estonia is a small, post-Soviet, borderless, secure nation. But they have found a way to the digital future, through e-Estontia, a coordinated governmental effort to transform the country from a state into a digital society. E-Estonia is the most ambitious project in the technological field today, writes The New Yorker, because not only does it include all members of the government, but it alters citizens’ daily lives. The services that the government offers or is involved with, like voting, education, health care, are all digitally linked across one platform, so the whole nation is wired. Citizens can vote from their laptops, and if they want to apply for a loan, all their data is pulled up from the system. Same with medical histories. The system is keyed to a chip-ID card that reduces tasks that are usually long and dull into a quick process. Almost all bureaucratic processes are done online. The country is home to 1.3 million people and four million hectares, half of which is forest. It has liberal regulations around tech research and has the lowest business-tax rates in the European Union.
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