Estonia launched it’s e-Residency programme three years ago so that anyone on Earth could apply for a secure government-backed digital identity and gain access to our e-services, e-Residency Blog writes.
Understandably, no one was entirely sure back then who would actually sign up and why. Many of the first e-residents were simply excited to join our borderless digital nation and had no plans to use their digital ID cards.
Three years later however, it’s now very clear who benefits most from e-Residency and — as a result — the programme is growing at its fastest ever rate.
The latest statistics show that there are almost 30,000 e-residents from 139 countries and the biggest motivation for signing up (at present) is the desire to establish a company. Why? Because companies established through e-Residency are trusted location-independent EU companies, which can be run remotely from anywhere on Earth with low costs, minimal hassle and access to all the tools needed to grow globally, such as international payment providers.
There are even more advantages to being an e-resident under development, but more than 4,000 companies are now run by e-residents and these companies make a significant contribution to the Estonian economy. On the third anniversary of the e-Residency programme tomorrow, Deloitte will publish an independent economic assessment of the full impact of these companies.