Amitai Rosengart's Blog, page 4

Concurrency and blockchain – revolutionizing democratic election

Block chain is revolutionizing democratic election. This article is originally posted at Coincentral.com  . As part of series of articles in the subject. Here you can find the innovative block chain technology is going to revolutionize our health system.

There’s a reason why we have to go to a polling place to fill out ballots for our elections. Anonymous ballots are the easiest way to protect the integrity of the vote while also protecting voter privacy at the same time. Digital voting has been a difficult challenge because it’s tough to verify that each ballot is valid while also keeping them anonymous. Blockchain voting could change that with its cryptography.

In fact, blockchain voting is already changing some elections. Right now, military from West Virginia, USA who are serving overseas can vote in their home elections using their mobile phones. A combination of encryption and blockchain registry tallies those votes. Other countries like Brazil, Denmark, South Korea, and Switzerland are exploring blockchain voting. By far, however, Estonia is leading the way. Their citizens have unique ID cards that allow them to vote on the blockchain quickly and securely.

Digitizing the most essential part of democracy could have deep and lasting impacts on global governance. Citizens can make decisions much more quickly and public referendum is a feasible option. Representative democracy could get marginalized for direct democracy by the people. But that’s not all. Another result is rigging elections could become more difficult, nearly impossible. This article explores how blockchain voting works, and its implications for the world.

Fundamentals of Blockchain Voting

Blockchain voting is similar to analogue voting that we’re used to. The same concepts and processes apply. In order to cast a digital vote, a citizen would need to register and prove their citizenship in a given jurisdiction. We could then record that identity and citizenship on the blockchain associated with that user’s key.

Next, a citizen needs a ballot to cast a vote. In the blockchain, this would likely take the form of a special voting token that would be deposited in the user’s account. This token would also likely have a time limit in which it could be used to vote, after which it would burn itself via a smart contract or become useless.

Casting a vote on the blockchain would involve sending the voting token (the ballot) to a specific address. Voters would know which address aligns with which candidate or referendum. Sending a token to that address would represent a vote.

Technically, that sounds simple enough. The vote gets registered on the blockchain where its immutable, verifiable, and transparent. We can easily count up the votes to declare a winner to the election. In addition, we can build nice user interfaces that automate and hide the process of sending a token to a specific address. Instead, voters would see a simple online interface for them to select a candidate or proposal and click submit.

Verifying Voter Identity

If that first explanation sounded simple and you wonder why we’re not voting on the blockchain already, just hold on. It’s actually a lot more complicated than that. There are a lot of issues that need a resolution first.

One major issue is verifying voter identity. In order for blockchain voting to work, we need a system that prevents people from voting more than once or voting in an election where they’re not a citizen. That get’s tricky on the blockchain because it relies on a central authority to verify citizenship or residency documentation.

A blockchain solution would likely rely on submitting passport or driver’s license scans. Then that identity might be connected with a mobile device via a password and two-factor authentication or biometrics (like a fingerprint). The idea is to verify that the person who submitted the citizenship documents is the same person who is actively at the computer or smartphone at the time of the vote.

Maintaining Anonymity & the Secret Ballot

Once we’ve verified identity and eligibility to vote, however, we need to separate it from the ballot itself. Importantly, one of the key parts of democracy is the secret ballot. Nobody should know how you voted so they can’t influence your vote in any way.

With blockchain voting, the information that registers on the blockchain shouldn’t include identifiable information. This means that information about the sender of the voting token has to be hidden. There are different ways to accomplish this, including zero knowledge proofs, ring transactions, or various encryption methods. Each has its benefits, drawbacks, and technical challenges. True anonymity at the same time as verified identity is the big challenge of blockchain voting.

Cybersecurity experts generally agree that blockchains are unhackable (with the right network size and consensus algorithm). Logic proofs and statistics indicate that it becomes increasingly unlikely that a block can be compromised once the network confirms it. However, the anonymity needed for voting is more difficult to secure and be certain that it won’t be compromised.

Possible Implications

Blockchain voting has huge implications if it grows in popularity and usability for the general public. It could fundamentally change how democracy functions.

1. Increased Transparency in the Voting Process

The biggest benefit of blockchain voting is increased transparency. Right now, once you cast your vote, you don’t really know what happened to it. You trust the poll workers to count it correctly. However, there’s no way to be sure that your vote counted.

On the blockchain it could be possible to track your vote and see that it ended up in the right place. Even though it wouldn’t have your information tied to it, your vote would exist on the blockchain for all of history.

2. Reduced Fraud & Election Rigging

A side effect of increased transparency is reduced fraud. It becomes harder to cheat the system or vote in the wrong jurisdiction with blockchain identity verification. Moreover, in countries where dictators rig elections, the blockchain could bring true democracy. Of course, initiating a blockchain voting system requires buy-in from the current government. However, over time blockchain could become an international voting standard, with the world community advocating for blockchain governance in all nations.

3. Everyday Voting in Real Time

If blockchain makes voting transparent, then we can follow and tally votes in real time. This means that elections can happen on a much shorter timespan. Additionally, if they are digital, they require less investment in polling infrastructure. As a result, elections could be held with a short lead time to vote on a referendum quickly.

This could completely change daily life. Imagine if you could vote on your phone on how traffic in your city would be routed today or whether to increase taxes to pay for a new park in your community. Voting could become highly targeted, even neighborhood specific. There would be little overhead to voting more often, possibly making voting a daily occurance.

4. Corporate Governance & Autonomous Organizations

Governments aren’t the only institutions that could benefit from blockchain voting. Employees or shareholders could vote for initiatives within a company as well. It’s possible to even imagine ownerless businesses where every decision is an open vote from shareholders.

5. Increased Voter Engagement

A big advantage of blockchain voting could be increased engagement. If blockchain makes digital voting possible from your smartphone or computer, voting becomes as easy as logging in and casting your ballot in just a few minutes. This would likely increase voter turnout drastically, leading to more direct democracy. Alternatively, it could lead to voting fatigue, where voters realize they liked electing representatives to worry about policy for them.

Conclusion

Blockchain voting still isn’t perfect or ready for primetime yet. However, it’s likely to be a massive change in democracy once it does reach legitimacy. Making voting easier and more transparent will create a more engaged electorate. It may also remind us of why representatives exist to think about policy full time and make wise decisions about things the general public might not be able to research fully. Easier voting could mean more frequent representative elections or ongoing referendums on our leadership. Even that would be a big change for democracy.

Share you thought with me in comment and express your opinion. Awareness and  open conversation are the key for the creation of a better future.

If you like this content and would like to get more, Please like this post subscribe to this blog or to my Facebook. Your support is giving me motivation and helping me cause. For more topics in this blog click here.

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National debts, the real problem of the average person. Part 1 – What is a national debt?

What is a national debt? It is not a secret that life in the west becomes progressively more complicated. People need to work more to earn less, while the cost of living is growing constantly.  The reasons for that can be divided to two. The structure of our current economy and the international relationship that has been created between the world countries. To learn more about the first reason, you can click here and read more about the vicious cycle of your current economy.  A this series of posts I will concentrate in talking about one of the most important factors that is making the economic life of so many people extremely complicated.

The reason for the increasing burden in the daily lives of many people is not as obvious as we would like to think, it is called the national debts. We hear about it all the time and take it as a reality that is bigger than us. We leave it in the domain of the abstract facts that are painting the background of our society, letting it be handle by “The professional people in charge”. The truth is that this subject is one of the most relevant to our lives and need to be addressed as a top priority in our political and social conversation.

Lets start by understanding what it is all about.  External loan (or foreign debt) is the total debt a country owes to foreign creditors. The debtors can be the government, corporations or citizens of that country. The debt includes money owed to private commercial banks, other governments, or international financial institutions such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank. In simple words, it means that the national debt, is money that a government (a public institution) owes to  private institution around the world attached the a certain interest rate. If you are interested to know the status of your county click here. As you can notice, if you’re living in a western country the national debt of your government is between 90% – 6000% of the GDP. In simple words it means that the country do not have the capacity to pay back the loan. In many cases, not even pay back the interest % on the loan.

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Why does it matter? First, it means this debt will never be paid and that no real solution exists to solve it. Secondly, It means that more the time will pass more problematic the situation will be. And the third point (maybe the most relevant to this post), is that real prosperity for those country is not possible. It is important to understand that these points and numbers are known to all and that it is not a new situation we put ourselves into. This debt problem exists for many decades. It is true that the last economical crash in the last 20 years made the balance inflate. But it is known a understood by all the world leaders and economist for many decades. Now, please take the time to think how many changes of government you had in you country in the last 20 years. All of them understood the problem, part of them not only ignored it but worsen the situation, letting it be the problem of the future generation and governing party.

The national debt of many western countries has increase dramatically in the last 15 years. The speed of loan taken by countries is a direct warning signal to us all. This loans that are taken are a clear sign of lack of responsibility of local government, as they are well aware that they do not have a real plan to solve the current debts they are in.  This lack of responsibility need to stop! simple solution exist and should be implicated. At the moment, just keep in mind that if you’re searching to understand why life has become so economically complicated for the average person in the western society, the national debt of your country is probably one if not the most important factor for that.

Share you thought with me in comment and express your opinion. Awareness and open conversation are the key for the creation of a better future.

If you like this content and would like to get more, Please like this post subscribe to this blog or to my Facebook. Your support is giving me motivation and helping me cause. For more topics in this blog click here.

 

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The vicious cycle of our new economy – Part 6. The final separation in our society

The final separation of our society between the rich and the rest of the population is at its final stage, promising a new status quo that we will be incapable of changing.  As we discussed in my previous posts, The system holding our economy is a very well understood mechanism built by our current elite to preserve its power. It is not a mistake or luck that bring the people in power to get richer, nor a misfortune or mistake that our local economy is collapsing, Leaving the majority of its citizens poor.

In this post, I will show you how the reality we are living in today is at one of its final steps, bringing us toward a general separation between the rich and the rest of the population. Such a separation will creating an economic barrier, preventing from the masses to control their fate (which is their freedom). To create such a separation a few steps had to be established first in the social order:

Educating the population in a manner that will convince them that their purpose in life is to be rich.
Creating a culture that is based on consumerism and individualism.
Creating a system supporting the population in a stage in which they feel like they have without really having. 
Convincing the population that they need the elite to manage the system itself. (As if it will not work without them at all).
Taking over the market, diminishing the middle class power imposing a reality which will speed the closure of small and medium businesses.
Creating a reality in which the majority of the population do not have an option, but to work in a specific job as part of their cooperation’s.,
Manipulating laws concerning working hours, wages and contract to promise legitimacy to their operation.

Following this steps has been established, a mechanism of complete separation will be created in a market, promising that the majority of the people will stay poor while continually and unconsciously “go to work” mind set will maintain the system. To fully understand how it works (Which is quite simple when you obtain the right perspective) lets group all the cooperation’s owner and all the employees to two groups.

Let’s take a specific person – Lets call him John –  in the group of the employees and observe his actions. John is waking up in the morning and is going to work in a cooperation (any big brand, company, supermarket, chain store, bank etc). In his employment the main purpose of his existence is to create profit for his boss (company). In return, John is getting a small part of this profit (called his salary) which is clearly to representing the actual value of his work (as extra profit exist for his boss).

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When John finish his work, he will go to the supermarket spending his income in another cooperation, creating profit for the boss of the supermarket. Then, he will got a chain store to by clothes (another place where he will spend his little income for the profit of a cooperation boss). He will call his wife with his phone (another cooperation), check his balance in his bank account (another cooperation). As he do not have time, he will go to eat McDonald with his children’s (another one) and will finish to month by paying the rest of his money for taxes (unfortunately a body that start to function like another cooperation).

To make it simple, From the moment only cooperation’s and employees exists, a complete separation will be created between the masses (employees) and the elite (the riches). This new reality will promise that the the rich will get richer and the population will stay poor, without having the need to fight for it. The most interesting aspect of this mechanism is, that we will still consider such a society democratic, as it goes to elections and give the masses the possibility to choose in which cooperation they want to go to work in.

It is important to mention that this vicious system is not yet complete in the majority of the countries I’m familiar with. Which give me a personal hope regarding a possible change. If we (the people, the masses, the poor) will not demand a change, the path that we are walking to is clear. As a reminder, the rich are rich only because we allow it and maintain it never the opposite way.

Is this post makes you feel a bit uncomfortable? can you see this system building up around you? Share with me your thoughts and opinion.

Share you thought with me in comment and express your opinion. Awareness and open conversation are the key for the creation of a better future.

If you like this content and would like to get more, Please like this post subscribe to this blog or to my Facebook. Your support is giving me motivation and helping me cause. For more topics in this blog click here.

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Constructive Education – Part 2. What does it promotes?

In this post, I will continue to evolve the concept of “constructive education”. This subject is one of the most important aspect for creating a better future. As the Western society in the 21st century evolved attached to values of materialism, the need to own personal belongings for the sake of a self-image, became an inseparable aspect of young generations. It can be observed in the pursuit of self-fulfillment and the need for control based on ownership. This ownership mania can be reflected in the need to own fashion item, cars and properties. The claim of properties as our own is a false conceptional illusion, bringing only misery and separation.

If the purpose of humans is to promote peace and prosperity. It is important to remove those falls conceptional ideas from the mind of the young generation. The need and claim of proprietorship by the human race, is partly or in many cases wholly, the cause of all disturbance of peace on earth. Without any doubt, an individual should be able to identify a place as his home. But in any case, should not fine in pride or a reason to pursue the destruction for others.

We are all coming from nature and sharing earth. A livable earth is one of our basic requirements as any other living organism on this planet. Enough land and resources exist to maintain not only the human race. We have enough to maintain all its plans and animals as a whole. With the growing global awareness and the recent technological development, it is possible today to maintain a constructive ecological system. Such a system should benefit all the living on earth, without the need to corrupt the land and the nature.

Ignorant and so called civilized person are claiming proprietary right on the communal properties of nature, because they have detached themselves from the nature and its inhabitant. Praising values of materialism do not reflect in any manner riches of a person, just his detachment from where he came from.  It is impossible to find neither happiness nor peacefulness detached from our source, which is nature. The enrichment and comfort achieved in the price of the enslavement of the rest of the population, is a symptom of a general behavior. Which slowly but surely destroy the nature around us and diminish the number of species and animal on the planet.

We are all part of earth and its ecological system. Ignoring it will undoubtedly bring to the destruction of our civilization, our lands and our humanity. This fundamental idea must be in the roots of any educational system. As it affects the dreams, actions and decision making of our future generations.

To get a broader understating on the subject, join the conversation and read the first post in the subject of “Constructive education” and follow the next one.

Share with me your thoughts in the subject. Awareness and healthy conversation are the foundation for a better society!

[image error]Time to take action toward a better education

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