Blockchain Revolution

Scenario Planning: Building scenarios with simulation and modeling software to project future policy needs and to understand the long-term consequences of decisions. Politicians, bureaucrats, and citizens could assess the potential impacts on a range of factors, ranging from health, to the environment, to the economy.

Prediction Markets: As we explained in the case of Augur, there are countless opportunities to use prediction markets for trading the outcome of events.

Governments can use them to gain insight into many substantive questions: When will the bridge actually be built? What will be the unemployment level in twelve months? Will there be a National Party prime minister after the next election—an actual question from an iPredict market in New Zealand.

Blockchain technologies could supercharge all of these tools. To begin, contributions from citizens could be private, opening up the possibilities of engagement. This is bad for repressive governments but good for democracy as it makes it more difficult for government authorities to censor, suppress, and track down opposition. At the same time, as described earlier in the case of Blockapedia, blockchain-based reputation systems could enhance the quality of discussions, reduce the number of trolls and saboteurs, and ensure that all comments are accurately and indelibly recorded. When there is compensation for winners or other contributors, settlements could be much more granular and instant through digital currencies.

Various smart contracts could be constructed with citizens and groups to better clarify the role of everyone in the process.

Melanie Swan, founder of the Institute for Blockchain Studies, argues that blockchain technology might have a maturing impact on how society approaches topics like governance, independence, and civic duty. “It might seem harder to let go of centralized authority in matters of government and economics as opposed to culture and information, but there is no reason that social maturity could not develop similarly in this context.”⁶²

Clearly, the next-generation Internet provides profound new opportunities. The main challenges are not technological. One cautionary example: Obama’s 2008 campaign created an expansive Internet platform, MyBarackObama.com, that gave supporters tools to organize themselves, create communities, raise money, and induce people not only to vote but to get involved in the Obama campaign. What emerged was an unprecedented force: thirteen million supporters connected to one another over the Internet, and self-organized to build thirty-five thousand communities of people with common interests. When young people chanted “Yes We Can,” it wasn’t just a slogan of hope; it was an affirmation of collective power.

However, in 2012 the Obama campaign shifted from citizen engagement to “big data,” replacing “Yes We Can” with “We Know You.” It used data to swing voters and target supporters for funds. The campaign won the election, but relegated citizens to consumption of its messages. The big data strategy had fewer risks than a strategy of self-organizing communities.

During both his terms the president did take important steps to engage citizens, primarily through “Challenges,” which are elaborate contests for innovative ideas. But in his critical second campaign, Obama failed to engage citizens and missed a historic opportunity to strengthen government legitimacy. In the end, even President Obama, who had been called “The First Internet President,” took the expedient route to power, using social media to broadcast messages and raise funds through data-enriched targeted advertising online.

If not the Internet President, then who?

There is a role for everyone in moving government and democracy onto blockchains. First, there are unlimited opportunities for eliminating redundancy and wasted time, voting and participating in new democratic processes, serving as a juror, earning energy credits, paying taxes and receiving public services, and seeing where one’s tax dollars are going and how representatives are voting. Elected representatives need to step up and show leadership in designing and implementing smart contracts. If you have integrity, why not encourage the creation of blockchain reputation systems? “Voters have short memories,”⁶³ said Andreas Antonopoulos. Create better transparency, whether you are a judge, attorney, police officer, or parliamentarian.

Civil servants and government employees could use sensors and cameras to track public assets and inventory on the blockchain, prioritize infrastructure repairs, and allocate resources. If you’re a young person, don’t give up on democracy. It may be broken but it’s fixable. Focus on campaign financing as a starting place for blockchain transparency, as big money is currently the most fundamental problem. If you’re a government contractor, use smart contracts to clean up graft and waste and evidence your superior performance. The possibilities abound.

Clearly there will be a struggle to bring about change, but citizens of the world, unite! You have everything to gain through the blockchain!