March 25, 2021 - Split IT experts from Tech Resources offer a travel solution that could facilitate drafting the new digital green certificate and protect citizens' privacy.

Slobodna Dalmacija reports that Europe is preparing to introduce digital green certificates, the so-called 'Covid-passport,' and an initiative is coming from Split that could facilitate drafting this document and protect the privacy of citizens.

As Secretary of State for Europe Andreja Metelko-Zgombić said at an informal video conference of European ministers on Tuesday, Croatia welcomes the Commission's proposal to introduce digital green certificates aimed at facilitating free and secure movement at the EU level.

The Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs website stated in the information about the meeting that the adoption of the legislative proposal and the completion of technical preparations following the plan are expected by June so that the certificates can be applied as soon as possible. A digital green certificate should be evidence that a person has been vaccinated against COVID-19, has recovered from it, or has a negative test result.

While preparations for the production of Covid passports are underway, the Split IT company Tech Resources, founded in 2016 by Josip Majić, a returnee from America, already has an almost conceptual solution feasible in practice, based on blockchain technology and smart contracts.

When you hear the word blockchain, you may first think of cryptocurrencies, but the possibilities of applying these technologies are much wider.

This Split company currently has 20 employees who work mainly for foreign clients, i.e., for export. Among the most important projects that speak about the team's expertise is the fiscalization of bills for Montenegro, which has been implemented since the beginning of 2021, and the toll collection system in Great Britain. By the way, this company's focus is on innovation and application of new digital technologies in real current problems of both the private and public sectors.

"Covid has affected our business, both directly and indirectly, so we took the problem of Covid passports as a project task to check whether it is possible to create such a document with complete data security, without compromising anyone's sovereignty and without the possibility of misuse, while maintaining full functionality and fulfilling the purpose of such a document. We worked on it for two months and managed to make a conceptual solution that can be implemented in practice," says Leo Žanetić, project manager.

He notes that this solution requires the association of Croatian IT experts to be feasible in practice. In this way, Croatia will save significant amounts of money, and at the same time, will protect the personal data of its citizens because the solution they devised completely protects privacy.

"We must protect our interests, citizens, and the state, as much as the situation allows us. We in the company are ready to gather a consortium of experts for free, communicate the solution, and fully transparently manage the project," says Žanetić.

It would work following the guidelines published by the European Commission.

"Every EU citizen would receive a specially created digital document (similar to the online vaccination appointment system) containing their personal data and information on the type, time, and location of vaccination. When a citizen is vaccinated, the state issues them a smart passport in the form of a card with a printed code on it. When scanning the code, information is obtained from a digital document," explains Žanetić and cites several examples.

You travel, for example, from Croatia to Italy to visit relatives you haven't seen for a long time because of the lockdown. The police officer will scan the code from your smart passport at the border crossing and receive a confirmation that you - Mate Matić under vaccination ID number 123456789 - was vaccinated 2 days and 18 hours ago.

After entering Italy, you will jump to buy gifts at the mall. At the mall entrance, the security guard will scan the code from your smart passport and receive confirmation that the holder of that card has been vaccinated. He does not need to know your name or ID number or when or where you were vaccinated.

After a few days in Italy, you had a small accident and will be admitted to a local hospital with a swollen leg. The doctor who receives you will scan the code from your smart passport and receive a confirmation that you - Mate Matić, health insured in the Republic of Croatia under number 65432, have been vaccinated with the Pfizer Mo vaccine. C113 2 days and 18 hours ago in Split, with the remark that you are allergic to penicillin.

As the Split IT experts point out, all this can be done with the help of blockchain technology, building a distributed application that uses a smart contract as back-end functionality. Thus, they would make their own blockchain with their own smart contract in which all the scenarios that, for example, Mate Matić had when visiting relatives in Italy were defined.

"This means that state information centers, i.e., data centers where e-citizen systems, e-referrals, e-cadastre, etc., work, would become the so-called "Miners" of that blockchain. By reaching a mathematical consensus, they would verify each other's credibility on the items from the smart contract. No one on that network could read any data without first the whole network approving and verifying it. All data is in blocks arranged in a chain and merged by reaching the specified consensus, hence the name blockchain. This achieves complete decentralization of the database as well as its management. No one can decide anything on their own without the approval of other miners," explains Žanetić.

He emphasizes that this means that a citizen can only endanger their data and no one else's. Also, the possibility of direct cyberattacks on weak points is eliminated because there are none.

"There can be no error on the server so that the system "crashes" because the system is not located on any server but is online and updated on the systems of all miners. If one miner falls, the only thing that can happen is a slight and short-term slowdown of the system until a new miner is activated and takes over the job of the one who fell," says Leo Žanetić.

Now it is the turn of the Croatian Government and competent institutions to could consider this initiative. Domestic knowledge and domestic resources are available to them.

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University will not get you a job; you have to work hard to gain knowledge before employment. This was addressed by representatives of Locastic, Ericsson Nikola Tesla, Typeqast and Netmedia at a panel discussion on 'How to Start a Digital Career', held on Thursday night at the new PICS Center at Split University's Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, and Naval Architecture (FESB), reports Dalmatinski Portal on March 15, 2019.

“Programmers in Split can choose where they want to work; it is a good life decision to be a programmer today. The renaissance is happening because every branch of the industry is based on IT, and some of these solutions have to be made,” said Marko Barić, Director and Development Manager at the Split branch of the Dutch company Typeqast.

“You need to learn the job before you get hired, knowledge is available and relatively inexpensive over the internet. Small firms cannot hire and educate, and, unfortunately, faculties unleash you with a low level of knowledge. During my studies, I bought 40 books through Amazon, nobody made me do it, and today I read two a month because if you do not follow the development, you are nowhere in two years,” added Barić,

Marko Maljković of Locastic shares Barić's opinion.

“Students will not learn the basics, they can learn from tutorials, and in our company, we can face a concrete problem whose solution can be helped by our experience. After 14 years of design, I continue to explore and learn new applications today,” said the founder of the Split company.

Grades from the faculties are not the most important, according to Goran Škugor from Ericsson Nikola Tesla, which employs 550 people. Project manager of ICT County Damir Brčić moderated the debate and asked Škugor how even the best FESB students can’t get a job. 

“The question is what the best student is? We constantly need employees, and we are constantly in contact with students. In a job interview, grades from University come in 22nd place. We are more interested in the concrete things and whether you show interest in the engineering things you worked on at University. It's nice to have an average of 4.8, but we'd rather give a chance to the one who had 2.8 but did something specific. In that sense, I would advise students to pursue seminar work, it is better to choose something more difficult to learn than only to do something as soon as possible,” said Škugor.

He revealed that they also do personality tests before employment, to make sure that the personalities of the workers fit into the team. Other panelists agreed.

“Programming is a lot of teamwork, technical knowledge can be learned, but personality cannot. We are also looking for social skills, not just technical ones,” said Barić.

But how does a student know what they want to do in life?

"It's good to know what you want. I wanted to work at the Lego factory, and this desire led me to design,” revealed Maljković, adding:

“Assemble a team here at PICS, start working and learning from errors, and your work will determine the direction you will go.”

“Put your shoes on and run,” said Škugor, and Barić said that it is all a matter of work:

“For years, from Monday to Friday, you could train tennis in the morning, in the afternoon and the evening, and you would become a tennis player, perhaps not the best but you could play. This is also the case with programming.”

The co-owner of Netmedia, Ivan Strigo, said that much has changed.

“10-15 years ago people came to us who knew exactly what they wanted to do, and now they are knocking on our door and saying: 'I would like to be a programmer.' We give them two books and they do not come back.”

The motivation to work in companies and the IT sector should not be missed. Barić pointed out:

“Programming is not coding, it's changing the world. We solve problems.”

"We are architects of society, it is powerful," Strigo concluded.

PICS is the new pre-incubator and coworking center at the University of Split, implemented within the ICT County project. It is intended for students, young innovators and all those interested in IT work, whose projects, with the help of a network of educators and mentors, will have the opportunity to enter the world market.

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