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Is Blockchain Technology Going to Disrupt Our Political System: We Hope So

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Re: Is Blockchain Technology Going to Disrupt Our Political System: We Hope So

#81

Post by heliumcraft »

acdha wrote: post #70
heliumcraft wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not saying it would affect the electoral college or electing some politician that I do or do not like. Some problems are entirely due to human nature, have been with us for a long time and will likely stay with us for a long time regarless of technology. However It would certainly be nice to vote online yet anonymously, confident that I can see in a public secure ledger that my voted was counted as a intended and…

Consider that vision from the perspective of historical voter coercion attacks: how would that not provide the perfect way for an employer, church, union, controlling spouse, etc. to demand to see how you voted? This is the same problem with Bitcoin privacy advocacy: it's a brittle design and the failure mode is complete, undeniable loss of privacy.

The voting would using a cryptographic system to ensure confidentiality.

The coercion attack is an interesting problem but something that is already illegal but cannot be fully prevented. IMO it outweights the disadvantages of a centralized voting database that can be easily changed by a sys admin.

Re: Is Blockchain Technology Going to Disrupt Our Political System: We Hope So

#82

Post by heliumcraft »

grogenaut wrote: post #67
heliumcraft wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not saying it would affect the electoral college or electing some politician that I do or do not like. Some problems are entirely due to human nature, have been with us for a long time and will likely stay with us for a long time regarless of technology. However It would certainly be nice to vote online yet anonymously, confident that I can see in a public secure ledger that my voted was counted as a intended and…

Sure but what your are really saying is it'd be awesome if the election results were cryptographically and anonymously verifiable by the voters. Of which the block chain is merely one solution. How do you get valid voting credentials to nontechnical voters such that they can anonymously vote and verify?

Indeed. I'm not claiming the blockchain is the only solution, but currently it's a pretty good one. I would hope for a centralized solution actually if that would help adoption and prevent voting fraud.

> How do you get valid voting credentials to nontechnical voters such that they can anonymously vote and verify?

That has to do with identity systems (see uPort, onename) and is an interesting & open problem.

Re: Is Blockchain Technology Going to Disrupt Our Political System: We Hope So

#83

Post by walshemj »

wpietri wrote: post #22

For a period as a child, I was thrown in among the happy-clappy sort of evangelical Christian [1] whose answer to every problem was, "Jesus can help you with that!" No money? Pray to Jesus. Sick? Pray to Jesus. Husband beating you? Pray to Jesus. Not sure if Jesus is real or just Santa Claus for adults? Pray to Jesus! This was an awful experience, but I learned a valuable lesson. When a group of people have exactly o…

Yes the article doesn't explain what problems with the various parliamentary systems are that block chain will solve.

The problems with hacking of electronic voting Is solved by using paper ballots counted by hand as we do in the UK.

And the problems of entryisam that the GOP has is solvable by OMOV and moving to a modern party system and not the 18th century cabals of rich land owners.

Re: Is Blockchain Technology Going to Disrupt Our Political System: We Hope So

#84

Post by erikpukinskis »

zilchers wrote: post #33

Ya, this is kind of silly. I'll actually say - before this election I was all about a Blockchain / electronic voting system. After Russia and Wikileaks and everything, no way. The paper based, locally run elections are incredibly secure, and protect against systematic attacks (which in an electronic world could even mean phishing, or something more mundane than actual hacks). I'm a huge fan of bitcoin, but I'm still…

That's the smart attitude to hold today.

But 100 years from now, when kids are playing with blockchains in the sandbox, and they have never seen a paper form, they will have the opposite gut reaction.

Re: Is Blockchain Technology Going to Disrupt Our Political System: We Hope So

#85

Post by maxerickson »

erikpukinskis wrote: post #74
maxerickson wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you are just holding up a small claim of success to make your grand claim seem less silly the specifics of it don't matter a lot.

Ok! I thought you wanted to talk about it.

I do, but I'm interested in hearing about anything anybody thinks made an impact, not in arguing about what the rules are for making impact.

Re: Is Blockchain Technology Going to Disrupt Our Political System: We Hope So

#86

Post by eternalban »

CyberDildonics wrote: post #35
eternalban wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Goodbye, critical thinking? Looks like it: Trump an 'outsider', Wikileaks "decentralized", and blockchain tech to the rescue of Siemmens' controllers.

Who has claimed wikileaks is decentralized?

"From Wikileaks to Anonymous, decentralized actors can exert ..."

Re: Is Blockchain Technology Going to Disrupt Our Political System: We Hope So

#87

Post by SilasX »

harryh wrote: post #64
olalonde wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That used to be a common argument against atheism but I think it's been largely debunked over time (e.g. people can live without religion and won't necessarily replace it with something worse). There's also a distinction to be made between voluntary association through shared interests (e.g. on Hacker News) versus a largely irrational allegiance towards a nation state (which is not usually a deliberate decision but a…

A pretty big percentage of atheists have replaced religion with environmentalism. The narrative is basically the same: We used to live in paradise but then man was corrupted and if we don't repent fast enough we'll be doomed to eternal damnation.

And to extend the analogy, they're deeply offended at technological solutions to things that could be solved with self control.

"Birth control? Just stop having sex when you don't want a kid."

"Carbon sequestration? Just stop being so wasteful."

Re: Is Blockchain Technology Going to Disrupt Our Political System: We Hope So

#88

Post by drcode »

brilliantcode wrote: post #80
wpietri wrote: post #22

For a period as a child, I was thrown in among the happy-clappy sort of evangelical Christian [1] whose answer to every problem was, "Jesus can help you with that!" No money? Pray to Jesus. Sick? Pray to Jesus. Husband beating you? Pray to Jesus. Not sure if Jesus is real or just Santa Claus for adults? Pray to Jesus! This was an awful experience, but I learned a valuable lesson. When a group of people have exactly o…

> This was an awful experience, but I learned a valuable lesson. When a group of people have exactly one answer to a problem, it's not even worth engaging with them. Even if they have learned to sound reasonable, their conclusion is predetermined. Evangelical fundamentalists of any sort are a waste of time. I think you've hit the nail on the head with this one. Cryptocoin communities have reached a religious cult sta…

> It's leaders are seen as infallible

This line amuses me because I'm definitely a complete convert in the ethereum cult and I genuinely can't think of anything Vitalik has ever said that I don't agree with 100% [1]. but I can't help it, he's genuinely an insightful guy that happens to have sensible positions on most issues.

[1] OK he said some dumb things about quantum computing in 2010 when he was like 16 years old.

Re: Is Blockchain Technology Going to Disrupt Our Political System: We Hope So

#89

Post by SkyMarshal »

zilchers wrote: post #33

Ya, this is kind of silly. I'll actually say - before this election I was all about a Blockchain / electronic voting system. After Russia and Wikileaks and everything, no way. The paper based, locally run elections are incredibly secure, and protect against systematic attacks (which in an electronic world could even mean phishing, or something more mundane than actual hacks). I'm a huge fan of bitcoin, but I'm still…

Interesting how our messy, heterogenous system of state and local-run elections is more decentralized, and thus harder to hack, than blockchains.

Re: Is Blockchain Technology Going to Disrupt Our Political System: We Hope So

#90

Post by SkyMarshal »

notahacker wrote: post #5

I've seen a lot of dubious "US election result proves us right about..." takes but the idea that the last US election was a step forward for ideas like "governance through code", "diminished national identity" and the potential for crowds to provide reliable fact checking services has to be the weirdest yet.

Yeah it's pretty tone-deaf, as if they'd slept through the recent election.
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