Will Switzerland’s digital trust be earned through blockchain? This question seemed utopian not long ago. Today, this technology, which is comparable to an unfalsifiable digital registry, is positioned as the number one alternative for the digitization of citizen services and public administrations. In this field, Switzerland is not starting from scratch. It can be inspired by the Estonian model, enriched by the new solutions proposed by the Vaud-based company SICPA, Softcom’s partner.
Estonia is an example of e-government.Since 2008, the Baltic country has been the only state able to offer fully digitized government services, no longer relying on physical, which are inherently fallible. In the former Soviet country, getting married, divorcing and selling your house are the only government services that are not yet digitized.Everything else is accessible in a few clicks, and secured by the KSI blockchain. We owe this evolution in part to the company Guardtime, a SICPA partner, which developed the KSI blockchain.
In collaboration with Softcom, SICPA’s services secured by this technology will soon be deployed in the canton of Jura, as part of a pioneering project in Switzerland, which will allow each Jura citizen to have sovereignty over his data and interactions with the State.Thanks to Softcom, the Canton of Jura is positioning itself as a precursor of a profound change in e-government. In practice, every Jura citizen can now exchange documents that concern him or her with the Jura administration. And vice versa.
The first objective of the project is therefore to give each citizen of the Jura the sovereignty over his or her data and interactions with the State. This is a big step towards full trust in the Swiss e-government strategy in order to exploit all the advantages, such as cost reduction and more efficient and available services for the population. In addition to trust, Softcom is also developing online services for the population for many cantons and departments of the federal administration.
