Blockchain applications in Governance - I
This place is more like a graveyard blockchain with empty blocks generated and reduced block generation times. It’s been a really long time since I’ve written or shared anything.
I will be speaking tomorrow https://bgeg.floor.bz/, in just a couple of hours focusing on blockchain application in governance. A topic I have spoken on so many times already in my mind since I learnt about blockchain technology some years back and of course on the podium about 3 times already. Looking into the space, this is the least developed solution or blockchain use case in the space for so many reasons, realistically least of which is because blockchain technology isn’t perfect yet. But the sad and bitter truth is that, no one really wants that level of transparency in the governance we practice today.
Over the years and centuries, there have been several types of practiced governments, but only Democracy has managed to last much longer. In its true form, what was democracy as invented then to what we practice today? Let’s activate the time machine and travel back in history, not to ancient Athens 2500 years ago when it was invented but to 1863 in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania during the time of President Lincoln and his address defining democracy as the “Government of the People, by the People and for the People”.
Now, let us look at it today, at the rigorous millenium or two of the downtrends changes had made. We will all agree that Democracy is a better system of government than what we see being practiced in some other parts of the world, but never agree that the system is at its best.
What would our lives and nations look like with a democracy rid of politicians? And that’s the topic, Politics, Governance and Politicians in a digital age of the 21st century. With everything going digital, are we to expect digitized government anytime soon? What will it look like and how will blockchain as a tool of governance come into play in all this? A lot of things have changed compared to a century ago, this includes our perceptions of everything including what’s real and what’s not. Before quantum physics, we believed that a single object can’t exist in two places at once, or rotate clockwise and counter-clockwise at the same time. We also believed that two distinct objects separated millions of distances in lightyears away cannot affect one another. But then, we were wrong. Not in any way similar but then, let us play a mind game of what if.
What if, the people we voted for aren’t real people, but bots made of codes? What if they were programmed with specific instructions on reactions to certain variables? AI would be a strong word inducing wide imaginations, so let’s stick with programs. So, what if that was the case, that programmers would compete on the best applications with varieties of functions and we would vote on the one to be installed and plugged into our systems of governance to govern our activities? And then, our imagination of these politicians will just be so, imaginations but with codes running in the background. Then, seeing them behave in this manner would only mean one thing. They are corrupted codes that need debugging or replacement. That reality isn’t so far-fetched considering the activities of these political offices can be programmed into contracts on the blockchain and that is where the technology meets governance.
To have a true democracy, the need of the people should be considered and that is why voting is very important. Blockchain voting makes it entirely immutable and transparent and of course a very useful application in a democratic governance on the Blockchain. But then, it doesn’t end there. We need decentralized systems that automate majority of activities in a transparent manner that limits the absolutism in powers granted to the politicians and of course, they are the only ones who won’t be happy with such development. This isn’t a statistics article or political science class, but then, our process of elections and selections of candidates sucks, and can easily be replaced by “Sortism’’, which is basically the random selection of candidates from a huge number of qualified persons, regardless of their wealth or color. This, of course, is achievable on the blockchain as some information can be privy, limiting the voters to random figures and addresses to select from.
How can a House (selection of few people) vote on the behalf of millions who have no say in the matter? That makes blockchain voting also applicable and instrumental in the near future eradication of expensive house representatives. But we can then ask the question of one voice, a leader’s inevitable merits in representing the people, how can a unanimous voice be achieved in the midst of many and diverse opinions? That’s ignorance and human negligence to the fact that AI/ML’s major function is to narrow down varieties of wild but structured data to make a decision which mostly is based on modal value. Majority always wins. So, there we have it. Opinions need not to be in few words, same language, perfectly constructed vocabularies, so long as it can be interpreted and summarized into open/close ended questions and answers. Whatever can be interpreted and structured can lead to a one voice, something human politicians won’t be able to do (justifiably summarize the opinions of millions of people the claim to represent).
To summarize all these few words, in order to fully realize the goal of “Democracy” people’s opinion need to count and the outcome of every transacted vote needs to be transparent. To achieve this, we need to go fully digital and decentralized and for that purpose we have blockchain technology.