Blockchain to power remote citizenship

Nasdaq’s Estonian stock market plans to use Blockchain to allow shareholders to vote remotely.

Blockchain uses a global network of computers or ‘nodes’ to store information so it cannot be tampered with. The system allows the history of activity to be logged, and Springwise has covered several innovations that capitalize on this function: an ip that enables artists to create digitally trackable copies of their work; and a system that uses Blockchain to certify luxury items such as diamonds.

Another application for blockchain technology is voting. Everyone can agree on the final count because they can count the votes themselves, and verify that no votes were changed, removed or duplicated. Now Nasdaq, the US stock exchange, is planning to use the technology to power a shareholder voting system in Estonia.

Estonia offers e-Residency, a digital identity available to people who start a business online in the country. However, currently, if those e-residents own stock in an Estonian firm, they need to be physically present to vote in shareholder meetings or nominate someone else to do it for them, an aspect which undermines the remote nature of the concept. This new system of voting, which Estonia’s Nasdaq Tallinn Stock Exchange is planning to launch later on this year, will allow shareholders to cast votes from abroad.

Does this mark the beginning of Blockchain technology used to bypass traditional notions of nationality and corporate governance?