Charles Small has managed multiple market research projects for companies considering establishing high-tech projects, including in-depth analysis of payment habits. For a free consultation, email Charles at: charles@csmall.co.uk
Many are familiar with the use of blockchain technology in Bitcoin and related cryptocurrencies, but its applications in voting systems are still largely unknown. Here, we explain how blockchain technology can facilitate simultaneous direct and indirect democracy.
Voting with Your Wallet
The traditional concept of voting in a representative democracy is straightforward. Voters physically travel to a particular place at a set time to cast a ballot, choosing their representative to stand up for them in government.
Risk & Security SolutionsVoting on the blockchain offers many more possibilities. When using this technology, an individual’s votes can be stored in and transferred from their personal wallet. All blockchain transactions are also publicly verifiable through the distributed ledger, meaning that all users can see which votes are cast. Lengthy vote recounts at the eleventh hour would no longer be necessary.
Additionally, it allows for a combination of political systems to exist simultaneously.
Simultaneous Direct and Indirect Democracy
Some traditional voting systems make use of direct democracy, whereby constituents vote on issues themselves in referenda or cantons. Most national governments use indirect or representative democracy, involving the delegation of power by the electorate to representatives in government. Several use a combination of the two.
Blockchain voting presents an opportunity for both systems to live side by side, and for members of the electorate to change between the two.
Imagine a situation whereby you choose a representative by assigning them your vote online. On the blockchain, this is recorded as a transaction, and the number of votes the representative receives from you and others is traceable and quantifiable. The representative can then use this legitimacy conferred on them by the electorate to vote on individual issues.
But what if you are unsatisfied with the way the representative votes?
In the U.S., the right to recall allows the electorate to remove a representative from office and prevent them from exercising votes. However, this system does not guarantee that the next representative will vote in the way the electorate wishes.
By ensuring that blockchain voting transactions are reversible, the electorate could recall votes delegated to a representative immediately. These could then be used by individual voters directly to vote as they wish.
Simply put, this allows voters to be as engaged in the political process as they wish to be. Too busy to get involved in politics? Delegate your vote to a representative. Your views don’t align with representatives’? Vote on issues the way you want.
This raises the possibility that voting behaviour of representatives would change following implementation of such a voting system. It is likely that representatives could become more responsive to the wishes of the electorate who choose them.
For now, the inadequacies of the recall system mean that despite the democratic nature of many of the world’s political systems, the electorate’s views are inadequately represented. As the gap between the desire of the electorate and the actions of the government is the fundamental reason for political unrest, this new technology presents an opportunity to reduce political instability by bridging the gap.
Several groups have attempted to incorporate blockchain tech into voting systems, including 2014’s Project Votecoin, and Australia’s Flux. The potential for this disruptive technology to change the way political systems work should not be underestimated.
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