The rise of blockchain technologies creates a new scenario for decentralized social management.
In the last year, the number of Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs) has increased 130-fold and have reached a market cap of $24,8 million, according to data from Deep DAO, a platform that gathers information and statistics on DAOs.
On the other hand, the growth of these organizations has accelerated in a short period of time. In January 2021, the total assets under management in the treasuries of the DAOs was 380 million. By September of the same year, they had already exceeded 16.000 billion dollars.
DAOs and Democracies
The new form of community governance proposed by DAOs could be implemented in our democratic societies. This is one of the recurring themes raised by lovers of cryptocurrencies and decentralization.
In this sense, Mars DAO is an autonomous organization that aims to lay the foundations for the first Web 3-based democracy, in this case, on Mars. To do this, they want to implement a decentralized organization to create direct government, in which people make the decisions.
It may interest you: Course on Decentralized Autonomous Organizations DAO
Mars may be far away, but we also have similar projects on Earth. Democracy Earth is a DAO that aims to create a global, borderless democracy for all, along with a universal income systemTo this end, Democracy Earth has created a consensus system called “Proof of Humanity.”
What is “Proof of Humanity”?
Vitalik Buterin is one of the great defenders of DAOs. However, the creator of Ethereum has his reservations, as he believes that the current voting system based on token ownership favors large fortunes or large holders taking control of the votes and, therefore, the decisions are hijacked or manipulated to promote the interests of these people.
Proof of Humanity is the first truly democratic consensus system, where every person will have one vote. To ensure that each member only votes once, the blockchain will be used, which will record the identity of each participant, their votes, and prevent them from being duplicated or repeated. At the same time, it will provide a transparent system so that everyone can review the votes.
The problems of democracies according to Merkel
As noted by Ralph Merkel, one of the fathers of public key cryptography and inventor of the cryptographic hash, one of the main problems of the electoral system and modern democracies is that, in most cases, voting is done from ignorance.
Analyzing and studying candidates and their proposals is something that requires a lot of time, which results in most decisions being made by “unmotivated, uninformed and unqualified groups of voters.”
How can DAOs improve democracies?
Delegating the vote
DAOs could change the governments of nations, creating a kind of “liquid democracies” in which every citizen can delegate their voting rights, on certain topics, to other people who have more knowledge or more experience.
Although it may seem undemocratic, according to Merkel's approach, leaving things in the hands of a small group of educated and well-informed people can help achieve a better democracy, in which decisions are made by consensus, without being influenced by emotions.
Transparency in elections
By voting through a blockchain, every vote is left registered and impossible to manipulate. Furthermore, if the process is developed on a public blockchain, anyone could access it to review the results.
Motivating voters
Another advantage of DAOs is that they would motivate voters, since by participating they would obtain economic benefits, in the form of tokens. In this way, voters will be involved in the decisions that are made.
Decentralized political parties
Halfway between a liquid and fully open democracy, DAOs could introduce the concept of “Decentralized Political Parties".
These organizations would not have a “secretary general” or “president” but would be managed by all members, who would use their voting powers to elect a representative.
Furthermore, every decision should be voted on and no political decision could be taken without the consent of the other members.
Continue reading: Benefits of offering cryptocurrency payments to customers
