Liquid Democracy, e-Voting and Blockchain: Can they build ...
Transcript of Liquid Democracy, e-Voting and Blockchain: Can they build ...
Liquid Democracy, e-Voting and Blockchain:Can they build a new political and economic system?
Grammateia Kotsialou2 & Luke Riley1
1Department of Informatics2Department of Political Economy
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Contents
Types of democracy.
Current online voting systems.
Blockchain online voting systems.
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Representative Democracy
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Representative Democracy
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Issues in Representative Democracy
Representatives are chosen for a wide range of policies⇒ best interest of the voter is only partially served.
Election campaign promises are sometimes not fullfilled⇒ voters deal with the consequences until there are new elections.
Concentration of power ⇒ increases the risk of corruption.
Not everyone’s voice is heard ⇒ minorities are often not represented.
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Direct Democracy
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Issues in Direct Democracy
Citizens are directly involved with decision-making.
Everyone’s voice is heard⇒ outcome represents the true majority of the electorate.
Unfortunately, continuous referenda will most likely result in voterapathy.
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Liquid Democracy
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Liquid Democracy
Combines the advantages of Representative and Direct Democracy.
Can increase participation in voting.
More knowledgeable people can influence the final outcome.
If trust is broken, citizens can deviate their vote to others.
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From Representative to Liquid Democracy
How can liquid democracy have a role in a representative democracysociety right now?
1 Local councils can decide to hand over certain decisions to the publicin a liquid democracy manner.
2 Representative democracy candidates can attempt to be elected on aliquid democracy platform.
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Has Liquid Democracy been implemented?
3, for local gov and internal political parties decisions:
I Demoex political party in Stockholm that won local council seats,
I Pirate parties in Germany, Italy, Austria, Netherlands,
I Partido de Internet in Spain,
I Net Party in Argentina.
7, for larger scale (high risk) decision-making:
I Liquid democracy performs better online,
I online voting issues to be first resolved.
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Current Online Voting Overview
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Liquid Feedback: Proposing an issue
Citizens can put forward proposals, which others can support i.e.:
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Liquid Feedback: Responding to a proposal
Citizens can suggest improvements to proposals, i.e.:
Or suggest competing proposals, i.e.:
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Liquid Feedback: Voting
Citizens can vote on individual proposals, i.e.:
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Liquid Feedback: Voting
Citizens can also rank competing proposals, i.e.:
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Liquid Feedback: Delegations
Proposals are tagged by location and topic, i.e.:
Citizens choose a delegate by area or topic, i.e.:
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Online Voting: General Architecture
At a high level, this is what you would expect in an online voting system:
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Online Voting: General Architecture
If we are lucky:
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Online Voting: General Architecture
Possible areas of attack or manipulation:
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Online Voting: General Architecture
Possible areas of attack or manipulation:
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Online Voting: General Architecture
Possible areas of attack or manipulation:
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Online Voting: General Architecture
Possible areas of attack or manipulation:
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Online Voting: General Architecture
Possible areas of attack or manipulation:
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Online Voting: Tips
Tips to minimise the risks if you want to use an online voting system:
Attempt small scale trials
Use a provider you can trust!
This provider should sufficient safeguards against attacks (e.g.monitoring voting traffic frequency from different locations, securedata storage,...)
Be involved in the project as much as possible (e.g. in the datastorage and counting procedures)
Do not use for critical elections without sufficient trials
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What is a blockchain?
It records data across many computers of a decentralised network
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What is a blockchain?
It records data across many computers of a decentralised network
Data is organised into blocks that are linked together
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What is a blockchain?
It records data across many computers of a decentralised network
Data is organised into blocks that are linked together
Each computer on the network (eventually) has a copy of the samedata in the same order
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How to vote using blockchain technology
Vote through any node of the network (your vote can be encrypted)
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How to vote using blockchain technology
Vote through any node of the network (your vote can be encrypted)
The vote will sent to all nodes and eventually be added to a block
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How to vote using blockchain technology
Vote through any node of the network (your vote can be encrypted)
The vote will sent to all nodes and eventually be added to a block
The block will reach every node of the network
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How to vote using blockchain technology
Vote through any node of the network (your vote can be encrypted)The vote will sent to all nodes and eventually be added to a blockThe block will reach every node of the networkIf you cannot hold a copy of the blockchain on your computer, youcan connect to another computer/server that does have a copy
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Blockchain voting systems: weaknesses
Not all ’blockchain voting systems’ use blockchain to it’s full extend!
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Blockchain voting systems: weaknesses
Not all ’blockchain voting systems’ use blockchain to it’s full extend!Blockchains are only unhackable if between 25% and 51% of thenodes are not malicious (dependant on which blockchain is used).
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Blockchain voting systems: weaknesses
Not all ’blockchain voting systems’ use blockchain to it’s full extend!Blockchains are only unhackable if between 25% and 51% of thenodes are not malicious (dependant on which blockchain is used).If you do not hold a copy of the blockchain on your computer, weneed to make sure that the connection to the blockchain is secure
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Where are we now?
Online voting systems for elections of a low and medium importanceare ready, e.g.:
Blockchain voting enabled systems are generally in the prototypestage ⇒ but they are coming:
Liquid and Direct Democracy at a local or national level can beimplemented now ⇒ if the people want it:
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Contact Details
Grammateia KotsialouEmail: [email protected]
Luke RileyEmail: [email protected]
Twitter: https://twitter.com/VOLT_Project
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