Can Democracy Work If Votes Have No Stake?

The questionable morality of allowing a majority to force an opinion upon a minority is an old paradigm. Some would argue that wars have been fought over the ability to vote. I think that is certainly debatable, but regardless of that, we do need to have a set of fair and transparent ways of coming to a consensus about a variety of things.

Instead of a government monopoly, maybe we can try government competition, or even cooperation. We have the tools and they are getting better all the time.

Use cases

• Voter IDs
• Voting
• Voting records
• Government/non-profit accounting/transparency
• Contracts
• Signatures
• Arbitration
• Package delivery (split key between delivery firm and receiver)

The nice thing, is that we certainly don't need any violence to explore and institute new ways of doing things now. That doesn't mean there won't be any fighting, but if we simply build better methods and out compete the old ways, we will end up with a far more robust, peaceful and prosperous society.

Interesting governance theories are put to practice in decentralized blockchain platforms.

We are watching experiments that have never been previously possible unfold before our eyes.

One of the first blockchains I had a real interest in was NXT. This blockchain platform has a lot of useful components, but one of them is a robust set of voting and identification features that I always thought were capable of being used to supplement financial instruments in large projects.

An example I can think of would be a road building project. As overly simplified as possible, lets see if we can work out something sensible.

Project: We need a road.

• We build a team that has a stake in the road. The team establishes a multisig account with a "Smart Contract" This and everything else going forward is completely transparent.
• Funding is started. All funds are put in the "We need a road" account. Donors may have verified accounts or unverified accounts.
• Proposals are submitted. Stakeholders vote.
• Payouts are distributed from the account transparently.

Again, this is obviously a ridiculously over simplification, but my point is that blockchain platforms already exist that can accommodate building "Muh roads" and I'm guessing anything else we need as well.

Is the ability to vote with no stake in the game a foundational problem?

Our current governmental systems are clearly outdated, corrupt to the core and in no way in the interest of the people it claims to serve.

With no market accountability of the voters in this system, the opposite is also true. The voting system is vastly outdated. The voters are unaccountable and they are clearly not serving the society more than their own interests.

How do we test these theories?

How do we try these technologies out and learn?

Can we find some experts and put together some templates and experiment with working out some projects?

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Posted from my blog with Exxp : https://governance.diggndeeper.com/can-democracy-work-if-votes-have-no-stake/

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