Part 2: Tokenizing ‘the vote’
How we can hand ‘kracia’ (power) back to ‘the demos’ (people)
Part 1 here
The following article proposes a process by which ‘the vote’ or ‘someone’s political power’ can be tokenized to be used in the digital domain.
Pre-requisite: A decentralised autonomous organisation (DAO) must be established.
Role of the DAO: To enable DAO members to decentrally govern themselves.
Tokenization Process
Each voter must pass through the following steps to tokenize their vote:
1) Register on the DAO — only their name and the name of their home constituency will be required (for those without internet access, other formas of registration can be made available ie SMS or in-person registration). A unique ID will be assigned to each registree.
Once there are enough people residing inside of any given constituency whereby they would claim a majority in a local/general election, a representative can be chosen to run for the seat. (Note: Only DAO members that reside in that constituency can choose the representative)
2) Vote for their chosen representative in their local or national election. — Representatives will be chosen only by voters who reside in that constituency.
3) Confirm their vote — If the representative succeeds in winning the seat, the voter must log back into the platform (or send a text) and confirm that they voted with their unique ID. They will then be automatically confirmed into the DAO and will be able to yield their political power.
How will the process of governance work after votes have been tokenenized?
All decisions (such as upcoming bills) occurring in ‘real world’ councils or parliaments will be put to referenda on the governance platform. On the moment of the ‘real-world in-person’ vote, the representative will check the governance dAPP to see how their constituency voted and then vote for this result. No coalitions, no politics. Pure representation.
In essence, the power that representatives currently yield will be decentralized between all constituents of the constituency.
all Once elected, the representatives role will be to act as a proxy to the voters they represent. They will not speak/debate or take part in ‘politics’. We call this proof of representation.
Let us use an example to understand the relationship each representative will have to their representees:
Requirements to prevent abuse
- Only voters registered on the platform prior to the election date will be able to confirm their vote.
- Only voters who are successfully represented by a real world representative will receive voting rights on the app (as per the rules of representative democracy). We call this ‘proof of representation’.
- Available votes will match the number of votes cast in the real world election, for example: If 3459 people voted for the DAOs representative AND they win the seat, then 3459 votes will be available for confirmation. This will work on a first come first served basis to prevent duplicate registrations.
Benefits
Proof of Representation uses the security of the real world election process to ensure the integrity of the system. To create a duplicate account on the platform would require the hacker to create multiple aliases in their own ‘real world’ elections AND then vote in those elections. This is a criminal offence in all countries (usually punishable with a jail term).
Importantly — due to the fact that voting rights on the platform will only be granted to voters residing in a constituency that the DAO successfully holds — POR will ensure that the political power (or capital) of the DAO grows in tandem with its membership base (enabling the DAOs resources to scale in tandem with its membership base — important when distributing something like a universal basic income).
ACHIEVING SUCCESS
“The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting.” Sun Tzu
Seats will only be contested for when success is guaranteed. This will be achieved by tracking membership numbers inside of each constituency and comparing that against previous election results. The DAO will know in which constituencies support is strongest and in which it is weakest. Resources can be potentiated on weaker constituencies.
As the DAOs membership base grows, the data collected on the governance platform will become more influential & the true ‘political consciousness’ of our societies will reveal itself outside of party lines and arbitrary ‘left and right wing’ ideologies or mainstream narratives. Existing governments can use the data collected on the platform as an on-going ‘poll’. The larger the DAO gets the more important this poll will become. Governments straying too far from the wishes of the people will only seek to empower the DAO further. Over time governments will be obliged to adhere to the consensus on the app (if they want to keep the support of the people). Rather than a chaotic overthrow of the existing system, the revolution will be a process of ‘becoming’, or as Alan Watts describes, a ‘happening’. An evolution not a revolution.
In short, the DAO will begin by influencing government decisions until its power grows to such an extent that it ‘becomes’ government.
IS THIS REALISTIC?
There are more than 4000 constituencies at the national level in Europe alone. At the local level they number in the 10s of thousands. The big players are not fighting it out at these local elections. Many of these local elections are uncontested. If we can get voters to vote in these local elections then we will have our way into the system.
From there, as people experience real political power, the weaknesses of the existing way of doing things will become apparent. Local budgetary decisions will start to be decided upon by the local people and the experience of real political power will become a reality. The rundown community center left empty for years will be renovated; the privatized basketball court will be nationalized and that empty plot of land overgrown with weeds will become a new public park. As people start to experience what real political power feels like, support for the network will start spreading like wildfire and the network effect will begin to take hold. From this point, it is only a matter of time until the first general election is won.
Winning an election would catapult the country’s political institutions and importantly the money supply (via the central bank) back into the hands of the people. Handing the people the ability to decide on where their money is spent, and also upgrading the speed at which those decisions are made will result in rapid transformative societal changes. Giving people direct control over the legislative making process would result in obsolete and outdated laws being repealed. Progressive laws will be passed. As consensus will have already been reached on the governance platform at this point these laws are passed without conflict.
As more and more seats are won across the world, the network’s voice will get louder and louder. Economic warfare will cease, trading barriers will be lifted, the required amount of schools and hospitals will be built, new roads will reconnect disconnected communities, satellites will be launched connecting the entire globe to the internet. Critical infrastructure will be built and people and resources will be able to move freely within the world. Today’s advancing economies will be transformed. Charity will become a word used in a bygone era. Archaic laws will be repealed. Ancien Obsolete institutions will be dismantled. Exposing corruption will be celebrated, not punished. ‘Mine’ and ‘yours’ will become ‘ours’.
The Vision
We envision that as the platform grows & individuals political participation increases, the mindless valueless activity that people currently have on their devices will be converted into real world visible & transformative changes in their communities. We envision this platform converting all of that wasted un-utilised energy, that knowledge, that untapped potential, that desire for action into real world visible & transformative changes in their communities. All of that pent up anger, that frustration will stop being directed at each other on Twitter. It will have somewhere to go, instead being converted into action.
The platform will provide people with another place on the internet where they can find purpose in their lives. We have seen the first glimpses of what this looks like with youtube, tik tok and other platforms enabling a flourishing of new educators & artists. The result being that wider society has never been so educated & entertainment has never been so rich. We envision this platform bringing a new dimension to the internet. Those who wish to do so can dedicate their lives to governance, to public service without all the barriers to entry that exist today.
Panacea envisions a society where economists make the economic decisions; where historians write the history curriculum rather than the state; a society that educates rather than indoctrinates; a society where decisions are made by people on the ground rather than distant bureaucrats with no grounding in day to day realities; A society where governments don’t defend poor policy, they admit their mistakes; where governments apologise for their wrong-doings they don’t ignore them; Panacea envision a society where digital technology makes everything faster, cheaper and more efficient. The bloat of governments will be reduced and the impossible load placed upon representatives backs will be shared amongst constituents. Unpopular opinions given disproportionate weight (to its reality) with the use of bots and duplicate accounts will cease. We will witness a shift from false consensus to democratic truth.
Big tech have spent billions getting everyone hopelessly addicted to their devices. They know what works and what doesn’t. Let us use their findings but create a platform where instead of the attention and activity of the populace commodified, we convert that wasted energy towards something far more productive — real world governance. Instead of people endlessly scrolling their social media feeds or playing jelly splash, citizens use that time to govern their constituencies. Parliament, congresses and councils take place not in Westminster, or Washington but on the buses & in the tubes on the morning commute. It takes place inside people’s homes & in the coffee shops.
Our dream is a world in which humanity has grown out of the tribalistic immaturities of international politics. A world based around the interconnected fragility of each and every one of us. Above all else, a world centered around a shared humanity.
Next Steps
Now it’s all well and good talking about new ideas and imagining better ways of doing things, but how do we get from where we are today, to where we want to be? There are a few options:
- We could lobby government or sign petitions.
- We could protest.
- We could wait / do nothing.
But let us be realistic. Governments don’t want this — especially those most corrupt. Why? Because these ideas scare them. Why? Because they fundamentally restructure and redistribute power. Whenever power is threatened, it resists. It always has and it always will. Millions were killed in the revolutions of 1848, before universal suffrage became the norm. Today thankfully, millions need not die for us to implement decentralised democracy, however, we cannot wait for the changes to occur from inside the government houses. It must come from the people. That means we must get organised. We propose to establish a DAO to fulfill our objectives of tokenizing the vote and ultimately decentralising and democratizing democracy.
Here we introduce the first proposal of the DAO — it’s name:
Naming the DAO — Proposal #1
PANACEA: Global Democratic Blockchain Network
Panacea noun: ‘a solution or remedy for all difficulties or diseases.’
Tagline: ‘Democratizing Democracy.’
If you support the mission of this movement please go to our discord HERE so we can continue building upon this idea.
