Estonia ran government records on a blockchain first.
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Estonia put e-voting, health records and citizen data on a permissioned government blockchain in the early 2000s, years before most people had heard the word. Shirley grew up there, and explains what that does to your idea of what the technology is for.
“Our country was the first to ever adopt private blockchains,” she says. “It’s a trusted permissioned blockchain at the government level, early 2000s. So we had e-voting, we have health care, and all kinds of government data and citizens data and processes backed by private blockchain.”
She lists what came with it: e-residency, which lets anyone anywhere register a company remotely, and a zero corporate tax jurisdiction. And what is coming next: “We just launched a grant program for AI and privacy-enhancing technologies, to adopt these technologies even further at the public sector level.”
Her own route in was about money, and she is unusually plain about it. “I got started in this space like ten years ago when I was looking at investment vehicles that are low barrier. I was pretty low income, but I wanted to start my journey with something, and I didn’t feel like stocks is enough low barrier.” She moved to Zug, Switzerland, the crypto valley of Europe, and started her career there in 2018. “Ever since then, 24/7, 365 in the space. Falling in love, gone through ups and downs, and yeah, I found my space.”
She now works with Logos, which she describes as “a privacy-preserving, open-source, local-first blockchain,” providing privacy at the base layer and customisable privacy at the application level, with storage and messaging protocols alongside it. She also runs her own company, Satoshi Girl, doing advisory, outsourced development and fundraising.
Asked what people outside the space do not get, she does not talk about the technology. She talks about the door being open. “People think it’s too late, because they see the price of Bitcoin and think there’s no chance they’re going to get in. But it’s still early.”
Her definitions, asked cold: ETH is “a pioneer in programmability in Web3.” Bitcoin is “the store of value and digital gold for me. They’re very different, but they’re here to stay, and there will be something for everyone.”
And her message to builders, which explains why Logos is not only software: “We’re all about revitalizing the civil liberty and human rights through infrastructure, through technology, but we also have a social movement.” Over two hundred locations run regular local meetups “for people to detect local meaningful issues and solve it later with our help.”
Filmed at ETH Global New York for We Them Media.