Crypto Cities and Quadratic Voting
Crypto Cities and Quadratic Voting
Blockchain unlocks new ways to implement better voting systems. Here's a look at how CityDAO (an aspiring crypto city) could implement Quadratic Voting.
Crypto Cities will Vote via Blockchain
One of the fundamental building blocks of a crypto city will be the use of blockchain-based voting systems for city governance. There are many reasons to like blockchain voting, not the least of which is security and transparency of the process. In a blockchain powered vote, anyone can verify for themselves how many votes were cast for option 1 vs. option 2, and can verify that each vote was cast by an eligible individual.1 Voter fraud would simply not be possible.
Blockchain-based voting also means that voting can occur digitally, which unlocks even more potential for improvement over current voting systems. No need to physically go to the polls, and no need to wait days or weeks for official results. More importantly, voting digitally with software like snapshot.org allows crypto cities to experiment with new systems of voting aimed at producing more efficient and effective democracies. One potential system is called Quadratic Voting, also known as “QV” or “Plural Voting.”
How could CityDAO use Quadratic Voting?
I’m currently a citizen of a digital organization called CityDAO, an aspiring crypto city. CityDAO legally owns land in Wyoming, the use of which is governed by its citizens who own a CityDAO citizen NFT. Parcel 0 (the name of the parcel in Wyoming) is the first of a many experiments by the DAO that are designed to test the systems and processes that will be necessary for crypto cities everywhere. In this organization, we can vote on lots of things (how to spend money from the treasury and what our next project or experiment will be), and are currently contemplating shifting from a single choice voting system to a quadratic voting system. I wrote an article explaining how this might work for CityDAO2 and wanted to share it here, as the premise is applicable to all crypto cities.
The CityDAO Journal #3 - How Could CityDAO use Quadratic Voting?
Tags: hashVoting, hashCityDAO
Footnotes
This sounds very scary (you mean everyone will be able to see who I voted for in every election ever???) but the crypto community is working on ways where a DAO or city could prove that a certain crypto wallet address holding its Citizen NFT belongs to a unique person while also allowing that person to be pseudonymous. BrightID and Proof of Humanity come to mind as two startups working in this space.
This article was made possible with funding by the CityDAO Research and Education Guild.