The vision is a network of communities, small and large, each with its own purpose. These communities may be family systems, social groups, community groups, specialty groups, specialized authorities, organizations, corporations, and even government bodies. These communities are self-governed through a democratic process which following seven stages of a basic voting process which are recorded in a blockchain to ensure integrity and trust.:
- Communities
- Membership in communities
- Issues, topics, proposals, candidates, etc. to vote on
- A voting method
- Tabulation of voting results
- Verification of results
- Access to results
At this point the project vision seems basic. What makes this specific project unique is how the stages of the voting process are managed. Each stage may be executed in many ways. For example:
- Membership in a community might be based on the existing member’s votes, payment of dues, expertise in their field, results of a questionnaire, or many other ways.
- The voting method may be simple “yes/no” voting, multiple choice, ranked multiple choice, rating, etc.
- The voting process may be anonymous or not.
- Votes may be passed on to a representative.
- Issues to vote on may have deadlines, stopped by an administrator, or continuous.
- Votes may be tallied in many ways.
- Access to results may be in real time or withheld until a vote deadline is over.
Each stage of the voting process is controlled by modules that execute each stage in a particular manner.
Taking into consideration the number of ways each stage of the voting process might be done, there are infinite combinations of ways the complete voting process might be done for each unique community. The communities choose their modules by member’s votes at each stage allowing the community members to choose how their community is run. This becomes an ultimate form of democracy.
However, that’s not all. Within our network these modules may be created and programmed by the communities or members of the network, shared with other communities, and chosen uniquely for community. This will generate a continually expanding library of modules.
Finally, let’s talk about the possibilities of some specialty communities that may exist on our network:
- Since modules are programmed by communities or networks of communities, there could exist a specialty community that tests the integrity of the code giving it a rating before it is released for use by the other communities.
- There may be specialty communities that verify the integrity of other communities. Are they fulfilling their purpose statement? Are they operating from a democracy or have members of the communities used the module process to allow more votes to a few members? This may be appropriate in some cases, but not all, depending on the community’s general purpose. Are communities fair in how they add members according to their purpose statement?
- There may be specialty communities that vote other communities in and out of the network.
- There may be specialty communities that fact check memes.
- There may be specialty communities that test the integrity of scientific studies and rate how they are adhering to the scientific method.
- There may be specialty communities that rate movies, books, and music.
- Members or communities may choose which of many specialty communities they trust as an authority on the specialty community’s purpose.
The possibilities for specialty communities are as infinite as the number of ways the voting process may be run. The possibilities for this blockchain network are infinite.
