E-residency: A cyberdream embodied in a digital identity card?

Abstract

Estonia-the small yet digitally advanced EU Member State-is the first country to open up its e-services to the world by issuing e-residencies, the Estonian equivalent to digital identity, to non-nationals. The Estonian digital identity or an e-residency grants its holder several rights unbeknownst to, or at least unapplied in, the majority of the EU Member States and in the world at a larger scale. Being an e-resident of Estonia, one can use the digital services of the country even if there had beforehand been no prior connection to Estonia, provided the potential e-resident shows legitimate interest. The digital services include possibility to digitally sign documents (legally enforceable in any EU Member State), do online banking, encrypt documents, as well as establish and manage a company in Estonia and declare its taxes online via the state-proven digital identity card issued and backed by the Estonian government. The given chapter scrutinises the perception of e-residency and discloses the problematical unbalanced aspects of it, pointing out that although secure from a technical point of view, e-residency lies on a defective concept and conflicting Estonian national regulatory framework that does not fully support the integration of the idea.