Eth: 0x00cce8E2e56a543abc084920eee3f88eFD0921ea

Wednesday, July 12, 2017

Founding: Blockchain Ideas for a New Government


If you had the opportunity to found a new country today, knowing all that you have learned in the last 200 years following the founding of the USA, what would you do differently from the baseline US system?


Introduction: 

Governments are problem solving organizations and as such can be considered solvers in an optimization problem. The speed at which problems are solved and the solutions that are created are a measure of the efficiency of government. Governments that take a long time to make even the smallest changes would be considered "inefficient solvers". Any government that can solve problems faster will have an innate advantage over ossified governments that cannot implement change.

Many governments try to solve problems by choosing the answer that gives the largest short term gain. This typically causes trouble in the long term because to get where they really wanted to go, they had to suffer first. For example, if you were on a mountain range blindfolded and you wanted to go to the beach, you would probably start walking downhill, even though the beach could be on the other side of the mountain range. To make government a better solver, we need to make good use of the last 200 years of  advancements. 

Technology allow us to improve quite allot on the systems the founders first proposed. Remember, they did all this without having the internet and blockchain. While we don't have any new countries that will be founded on Earth soon, Mars may present the nearest opportunity we have to put these in practice (assuming that we have sufficient number of people there to actually found a new country).

Proposed Changes:

  • Liquid Democracy: This can now be easily implemented with blockchain and digital signatures. This did not exist in 1776 which is why we have districting.
    • Pros: Uses Math and the Internet to solve the Jerrymandering problem. Allows Barbara to make a small decision (do I trust Matt and does he have good ideas on how to improve society) and enables the empowerment of proxies (Barbara gives Matt her proxy vote. Now everything that Matt votes on he has two votes).
    • Cons: You don't need to be associated with a "political party" to get "elected"?
  • Cryptocurrency: Automate the FED thanks to blockchain
    • Pros:  Safe and Secure. People that take risks gamble without possibility of bailout because the FED is run by algorithm. Solidifies monetary policy (gets away from looking at brief case sizing )
    • Cons: Government can't print money on demand and thus works with more constraints.
  • Nuclear Weapons: No need to have a single finger on the button, this can be managed easily through the blockchain and digital signatures
    • Pros: No need to man missile stations (they could be automated?). No need to pay for a dedicated military network for command and control. Just connect to any cell tower and sign that smart contract (requires 3 of 5 signatures)!
    • Cons: One person can't destroy the world anymore. DDoS vulnerable. Make sure to pay your gas cost!
  • Property Rights: Blockchain enabled
    • Pros: Easy to verify who owns what and allows everyone to see who has a lien on the property. Cuts down on title fraud.
    • Cons: Government can't randomly give away your property to someone else.
  • National ID System: Blockchain anyone?
    • Pros: Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) ceases to be useful for anything other than driving tests. Leaves behind the Roman era of paper documents and wax seals / embossing.
    • Cons: No "one place to go" if you need to revoke / renew ID's if you lost your key?
  • Randomized Holidays: Practice what you preach as far as federal government religious impartiality. Average one federal holiday every 33 days fit to an exponential distribution. Roll a year in advance for the holidays of next year.
    • Pros: No Religious favoritism
    • Cons: No Religious favoritism

Your Ideas?