e-Estonia

Estonian e-services created under this initiative include e-Tax Board, e-Business, e-Banking, e-Ticket, e-School, University via the internet, the e-Governance Academy, i-Voting,[1][2] as well as the release of several mobile applications.

After the Estonian Restoration of Independence in 1991, the country was faced with the necessity to build a new technology infrastructure with very few resources, while trying to catch up with the West as quickly as possible.

The idea of this project was to heavily invest in the development and expansion of computer and network infrastructure in Estonia through public-private partnerships, with a particular emphasis on education.

[7] The technology underpinning Estonian digital society is the distributed data exchange layer for registers and information systems called X-Road (X-Tee).

[8] The main idea, in addition to providing a safe data exchange platform and avoid leaking sensitive personal was to create one central unit where Estonian citizens would be able to both receive and give information, government's officials could use just one central state database and entrepreneurs would have the possibility to use the information in state databases for the benefits of their business.

[8] Today, the X-Road has become the backbone of e-Estonia, allowing the nation's public and private sector information systems to link up and operate in harmony.

The e-Identity system means that all Estonian nationals and residents, regardless of location, have a state-issued electronic identity, called eID which enables them to interact with the state and use all of its services.

Non-residents can apply to have a smart ID card issued to them by the state, providing the same access to Estonia's various electronic services that a physical resident would be given.

The card, in conjunction with a separate pin code, also allows e-residents to digitally sign documents over the internet, a practice that is legally binding anywhere in the EU.