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“X-Road is not based on blockchain technology”- The Nordic Insitute for Interoperability Solutions (NIIS), a joint organization founded by Estonian and Finnish governments responsible for the administration of X-Road development, has published a thorough article about the abuse of the world “blockchain”. It has been one of the buzzwords of 2017 and became known after the success of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies which are based on its technology.
The blockchain is a decentralized and distributed database which is updated through a consensus protocol: every node has a full copy of the database and blocks stored in there are linked to each other using cryptographic hash functions. X-Road is the backbone of Estonian digital society and allows both public and private sector databases to exchange data. As written by Petteri Kivimaki in the article “the common factor between Blockchain and X-Road is that both are using cryptographic hash functions for linking data items to each other”. Cryptographic hash functions existed before both systems were invented, so this doesn’t mean that X-Road is based on blockchain technology.
This article was originally published by the Nordic Institute for Interoperability Solutions. Read the full article here.
The lessons we learned
On May 9, the Information System Authority (RIA) – governmental organization responsible for the administration of the Estonian information system – organized a public conference to discuss and share insights about the security flaw, which affected the Estonian e-ID cards last autumn. Among the speakers was Petr Svenda, researcher of the University of Masaryk in the Czech Republic, who first discovered the security risk in Infineon chips.
The Estonian prime minister Jüri Ratas welcomed the international audience underlying that: “The success story of the e-state can only be based on cooperation, in which a role of their own is played by strong IT specialists from the private sector, researchers from universities, as well as a smart state that skillfully handles their knowledge”.
This article was originally published in The Baltic Course. Read the full article here.
Payoneer to ease e-residents’ transactions
e-Residency community has been struggling to find new ways to widen the possibilities for e-residents to enjoy banking services remotely. Payoneer is a payment platform operating in 200 countries, allowing global entrepreneurs to pay and get paid without the need for a local business bank account.
Adam Rang, Chief Evangelist at e-Residency, welcomed the new partnership positively: “We’ve spoken to several e-residents about their experience with Payoneer – which offers an account with access to hold accounts in multiple countries. The assessment has been very positive, particularly as their service has expanded and improved recently with lower fees. The programme is now working more closely with Payoneer to help them serve our community”.
This article was originally published in e-Residency Blog. Read the full article here.
