How will blockchain revolutionize our voting system?

The original author Joseph Lubin is the founder of Consensys and co-founder of Ethereum. Consensys is committed to developing applications and infrastructure for the next generation of decentralized networks.

The 2016 US presidential election was a watershed event for US and global politics. What interests me as a blockchain (especially Ethereum) technologist is that we are seeing more and more evidence that the world is becoming more decentralized, and that the influence of decentralized technologies on current and future political outcomes — and even the internal structure of nations — is growing exponentially.

This year, we saw that some powerful foreign and non-state actors have the power to influence who becomes president of the United States. While past elections have undoubtedly been influenced by a variety of shadowy interests, those interests are likely to be at least mostly American. However, this year, decentralized actors, from WikiLeaks to Anonymous, were able to exert surprising influence and undermine the control of the American people over the election. It only takes one foreigner with control of a large botnet (as evidenced by the recent massive DDoS attacks on US networks) to wreak havoc and, if timed well, even remotely influence the conduct of the US election. The US has long been the 'world policeman', but now the world is increasingly able to directly enforce some 'checks' on the US political system.

Likewise, state actors are increasingly able to use information power to influence events on foreign soil. Cyber ​​weapons, such as worms, have caused millions of dollars in physical and strategic damage in foreign programs. New sophisticated technological actors around the world are developing technologies that enable one party to remotely disrupt another.

The decentralization that blockchain technology brings will lead to more technologies that can be used for disruptive purposes and provide solutions for voters and communities to make outcomes fairer, more predictable, and more transparent.

1. Management will be done through code

As decentralized groups, like rLoop, form on the Internet, and these groups may use blockchain-based tools (like Boardroom) to govern themselves, organize, and deliver successful high-tech projects, the ability of these technologies to support decentralized, robust, real-time decision-making will become more apparent. This has profound implications for future voting systems, which could employ technologies like liquid democracy, quadratic voting, and even wisdom/prediction markets.

While publicly supporting blockchain-based decision-making solutions may not be enough to convince countries to upgrade their traditional voting systems (especially if one party has a vested interest in preserving the status quo), technology companies may be able to improve the economics. Nevertheless, some countries will make the wise decision to welcome these blockchain solutions.

2. The importance of national identity will be weakened

When nearly every one of the world’s 7.4 billion people is able to create their own blockchain-based user-centric or self-sovereign identity and a durable, portable reputation, each of them will be able to navigate and guide themselves in the liberation of the world’s emerging digital economy.

For example, uPort is a mobile app that allows individuals to register their unique identity on the blockchain, which will become a persistent anchor of trust in their digital interactions. Individuals can use this identity to log into digital services, as a personal signature for digital transactions, and then gradually gain a kind of personal credit. All of this is information stored in an environment controlled by the user, so it does not rely on traditional institutions at all, making identity a richer representation of the individual.

When blockchain-based credit enables you to get a small loan from the other side of the planet and you are able to use this blockchain-based currency to buy tools to run a small business, the world will become more integrated and national identities will become less relevant.

3. Traditional voting systems will become a test case

As organizations create online voting systems that borrow from and preserve traditional political voting systems, there will be more transparency between the middle class and Congress. Everyone can compare the benefits of policies advocated by lobbyists and politicians to ordinary citizens.

Self-sovereign identity and a persistent, portable reputation, along with other fraud-resistant elements we’re working on at ConsenSys, have the potential to solve the Sybil attack problem (the ability to easily and cheaply create fake identities on the internet). Once this is achieved, a major barrier to creating provably fair decentralized voting systems will be removed.

4. Rewards for exposing corruption

Platforms where anyone can ‘bet’ on the outcome of any determinable event, also known as prediction markets or wisdom markets, are a huge use case for blockchain. For example, Gnosis is an Ethereum-based wisdom market where, in some cases, truth seekers can post a ‘consulting fee’ for information that could affect a business or political campaign.

When other wisdom seekers do the same and offer higher 'consulting fees', those who have never revealed this information before may become 'wise advisors'. These wise advisors can reveal some information and earn some consulting fees. The accepted facts and real truths may gradually move closer. And the corrupt infrastructure that supports the deep system may die.

The prospect of future elections with little corruption is enough to excite 99% of the world's people.