Blockchain’s Future As The Future Of Democracy

Blockchain technology can revolutionize and optimize democracies in ways that will change the fabric of our societies for the better. It seems only a matter of time until democracies move on-chain.

Blockchain Offers Fixes When Democracy Needs Them Most

Over the past several thousand years, one of the most rousing trends in human civilization has been our collective and steady democratization.

There were early blips, like the rising of the free peoples of Athens in ancient Greece. And things have moved much more rapidly in recent centuries, as the age of tyrants and kings were dealt a death blow by the age of constitutions and freedom.

Now, blockchain technologies are being hailed as the next major milestone in the democratization of humanity. And these cutting-edge technologies have the potential to perfect contemporary democracies in ways that previously were not conceivable.

Innovations, like the Democracy Earth’s voting system, Sovereign, based on blockchain technology, for example, are needed more than ever, especially as the imperfections in traditional voting systems have become causes of concern in recent years.

Consider how in September 2017 the state of Virginia in the United States de-certified every touch-screen voting machine in their jurisdiction after it was revealed that hackers could easily manipulate the devices’ voting records.

This vulnerability is one among many that face the increasingly antiquated voting systems in use today. Without being able to guarantee voting records, our very societies themselves cannot be guaranteed and legitimate. And that is where the blockchain’s promise can shine.

The immutable ledger of the blockchain is unbreakable and fully auditable, 24/7.

Securing Voting Records and Mitigating Voter Apathy

Naturally, then, blockchain technology’s most fundamental solution for democracies is its ability to prevent fraudulent elections.

Through the blockchain, nations will be able to set up smart contracts with their respective electoral rules. Citizens will then be able to securely and remotely vote in total anonymity while after that being able to verify the vote in real-time on the publicly auditable blockchain ledger.

Never again will there be the need for tedious paper ballot recounts, as a matter of fact, recounts should become obsolete altogether, in theory, once elections move on-chain for good.

Full-proof and decentralized elections are an exciting possibility. But another critical way that the blockchain can improve democracy is in its ability to mitigate voter apathy.

Western democracies like the United States are, simply put, seeing a decline in voter participation.

During a recent interview by Huffington Post, Tokenbox.io and The Token Fund founder Vladimir Smerkis noted that blockchains could empower direct democracy, which would inherently motivate citizens to be more active because they have been given an increased stake in society:

“Right now, we simply elect people to make decisions on our behalf, and we don’t need to do that. We can have a say [in] every major decision, through the blockchain, and force the government to actually do what the majority of people want…That is true democracy, on a daily basis, which we just don’t have right now. To me, it sounds like a better world with real accountability and every citizen getting a sense of ownership.”

And that’s the magic of the brave new world ahead; the blockchain can decentralize power, giving the “little guys” more control over their own lives and freedoms than ever before.