{"id":24331,"date":"2017-02-08T21:10:15","date_gmt":"2017-02-08T21:10:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ci027cfe6450082697"},"modified":"2017-02-08T21:10:15","modified_gmt":"2017-02-08T21:10:15","slug":"procivis-set-release-blockchain-powered-e-government-app-store-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/business\/procivis-set-release-blockchain-powered-e-government-app-store-year","title":{"rendered":"Procivis Set to Release Blockchain-Powered e-Government \u201cApp Store\u201d This Year"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"bsf_rt_marker\"><\/div><figure><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/procivis-set-to-release-blockchain-powered-e-government-app-store-this-year.jpg\" title=\"\"><\/figure>\n<p>Swiss startup Procivis is set to release a pilot version of its blockchain-powered e-government \u201capp store,\u201d including a digital identity service, by Q4 of 2017. The company is currently in talks with clients in Switzerland, two cantons and a national government body, as well as two other countries for potential pilot programs, Daniel Gasteiger, founder of Procivis, told <em>Bitcoin Magazine.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>A former UBS banker, Gasteiger is the co-founder of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nexussquared.co\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">nexussquared<\/a>, a Zurich-based fintech platform focusing on blockchain technology that provides business coaching services and consulting, and operates an acceleration program called nexuslab.<\/p>\n<p>His latest venture, Procivis, is focusing on applying blockchain technology to the public sector and governance.<\/p>\n<p>The company is developing a blockchain-powered platform designed to run a government-curated \u201capp store\u201d offering the full range of public administrative services, including tax filings, land registry and commercial registry. Procivis is working closely with Estonian e-government experts to develop its \u201ce-government as a service\u201d solution. <\/p>\n<p>Kaspar Korjus, the managing director of Estonia\u2019s e-Residency program, is one of Procivis\u2019s strategic advisers. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cLearning about the level of digitization of the public sector in Estonia left me deeply impressed, especially when looking at the state of digitization in Western Europe, including Switzerland,\u201d said Gasteiger. \u201cBy bringing Estonia\u2019s leading e-government experts on board and adding our blockchain experience, our aim is to create a platform that can serve as the future electronic backbone of democracies across the globe.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>After regaining independence in 1991, Estonia embarked on a period of modernization that established the foundation needed to bring the country into the digital age.<\/p>\n<p>Estonia\u2019s use of modern information and communication technologies in the public sector has placed the country at the forefront of states that are seeking to modernize their public sector and provide transparent governance.<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/e-estonia.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">e-Estonia<\/a> movement, which focuses on facilitating citizen interactions with the state through the use of electronic solutions, nurtured the development of several e-services and programs, including i-Voting, e-Tax Board, e-Business, e-Banking, e-School and most notably e-Residency, a program that offers electronic residency to people from outside the country.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Switzerland and Beyond<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Procivis will be targeted at the Swiss market primarily but will also seek to serve other markets as well. More specifically, Gasteiger noted that the platform could help countries that are falling behind in their e-government effort to leapfrog their counterparts.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cGiven Switzerland\u2019s relatively poor position in international e-governance rankings, and of course the fact that Switzerland is our home base, we are naturally targeting Switzerland as a whole, along with its 26 sovereign states (cantons) for our e-government platform,\u201d said Gasteiger. \u201cBut we also strongly believe that we can have a powerful impact in countries with slightly less advanced e-government services (few or no \u2018legacy\u2019 systems) or in \u2018younger\u2019 democracies, more keen to invest in e-governance \u20182.0\u2019 and thus bypassing the \u2018trial and error phase\u2019 of other countries\u2019 implementation programs for such services, along with the obsolete technologies that come with it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He added: \u201cWe are very much looking to work with such countries to help them deliver e-services to their citizens based on secure digital identities similar to what India has been doing with their Adhaar program, for instance.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Procivis is now looking to raise 1 million CHF ($1 million) in seed capital to secure key managerial positions, finance research and development, and fuel growth in foreign markets. The company is currently in talks with potential joint-venture partners to help it bring the pilot version of its platform to real life and further development.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Swiss startup Procivis is set to release a pilot version of its blockchain-powered e-government \u201capp store,\u201d including a digital identity service, by Q4 of 2017. The company is currently in talks with clients in Switzerland, two cantons and a national government body, as well as two other countries for potential pilot programs, Daniel Gasteiger, founder [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3452,"featured_media":24332,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[1975,297],"class_list":["post-24331","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-estonia","tag-switzerland"],"author_data":{"id":3452,"name":"Diana Ngo","nicename":"diana-ngo","avatar_url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1f0d641833814c142e0f5bbd3678299eda24a8f4d3366974b07adc24a277b0c0?s=96&d=robohash&r=g"},"featured_image_url":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/procivis-set-to-release-blockchain-powered-e-government-app-store-this-year.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24331","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3452"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24331"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24331\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24332"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24331"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24331"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24331"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}