116

submitted 3 months ago by UraniumBlazer@lemm.ee to c/technology@lemmy.world

36 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Most states rely on paper bureaucracy to ensure that the state can function and provide services. Paper bureaucracy has been part and parcel of how we maintain states and corporations since the Chinese invented the first paper bureaucracy systems of management 3000 years ago. But as you all probably know, bureaucracy kinda sucks. It costs a lot to maintain, and in the worst cases bureaucracy can turn a state into a labyrinthian monstrosity that can be near to impossible to navigate.

Estonia is a Baltic country that in recent years has been embarking on reform programs that are intended to change this. Estonia is a “Paperless state” meaning a state that has effectively removed all paper from it’s bureaucracy and replaced it with a digital state structure. In this short video I would like to introduce you to the digital state and argue for it.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[-] JayDee@lemmy.ml 5 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

I watched though about half of it, before concluding that this video is only going to be a summary video that won't answer my questions fully.

Digital ID and Digital signature are absolutely necessary, though depending on how those two are implemented I could still see fraud and vote manipulation being feasible. I was hoping someone with more knowledge about how Estonia is doing its security and verification systems to ensure records aren't being modified maliciously.

[-] sandalbucket@lemmy.world 8 points 3 months ago

I’m happy to revisit and explain, but I don’t have much time to type right now - the wikipedia page for estonia has great info; you will need a basic understanding of cryptographic hashing and merkle trees

[-] CucumberFetish@lemm.ee 2 points 3 months ago

There should also be a 30sth page doc about how the e-voting machines are set up, configured and secured somewhere. But it is in Estonian and I can't be arsed to find it now

[-] huginn@feddit.it 7 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Estonian_identity_card

It's actually fascinating. Asymmetric keys with public keys hosted by the government and the private key in your ID.

A 4 digit pin1 code is required to use the authorization key and a 5 digit pin2 is required to use the signing key.

The average Estonian signs 50 documents per year using this method.

[-] CucumberFetish@lemm.ee 4 points 3 months ago

Everyone in Estonia has to have an ID card, which contains the RSA keys and x.509 certs for giving digital signatures.

[-] tabletti@lemmy.world 1 points 3 months ago

And all the software is open source :)

this post was submitted on 31 May 2024

116 points (93.9% liked)

Technology

58123 readers

4039 users here now

This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.

Our Rules

Follow the lemmy.world rules.
Only tech related content.
Be excellent to each another!
Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
Politics threads may be removed.
No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
Only approved bots from the list below, to ask if your bot can be added please contact us.
Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed

Approved Bots

founded 1 year ago

MODERATORS