DID for Democracy on the Blockchain

Develop infrastructure for Atala PRISM implementation on "consenz: agreements building platform" to practice on-chain democratic system

10 years of working with governmental officials and municipalities to build and promote apps for public participation in decision making. Fund 7 funded proposer. A team that build prototype of the app proposed, Partnered with ADAGov - F4 (Completed) + Funded F5, F6 Proposals.

[IMPACT]

For most DAOs and blockchain communities the main method for decision making is based on the formula of one coin/token = one vote. This way of calculating influence power does make sense for the business and financial paradigms, as It considering the risk at stake by the voters and give them voting power accordingly.

But we wish to see the impact of the blockchain technology goes beyond the business and financial paradigms - towered communities empowerment, political radical change and novel ways for human communication and collaboration. This is why we need a wider range of decision making methods and influence power allocations, like the use of quadratic voting (1) and/or other methodologies which enable broad consensus building in decision making

To achieve this goal digital identity is necessary. While one coin = one vote depend only on the ability of the voter to hold a private key (using wallet app), other voting mechanism requires ways of identifying the voters in order to make sure that they don't use their power more then once, impersonate others or harm the process in other ways.

It is a huge challenge to do that in a decentralized, private and secure way, and we wish to address it by researching the potential of Atala PRISM technology on real life use cases of decision making that require human identity verification.

Our plan is to do that on consenz platform.

What is consenz?

Consenz is an agreements building platform (funded in f7) that allows a large number of participants to take an active part in discussion and document editing.

The following discussion-features make Consenz unique, compared to other platforms:

• Instead of an endless and chaotic thread of comments, there is a focus and a product to the process: A document that can be discussed and edited by the participants and reflect their agreements.
• There is a clear structure to the content: comments are attributed to a specific section and function as arguments for or against it; sections are attributed to a specific topic; topics are attributed to the document.
• There is a voting system that allows the users to express their opinion without adding noise to the discussion.
• The voting system also creates a method to deal with conflicts and determine which opinion has the majority of participants' agreements.
• Those agreements are separated from the noise by a simple algorithm that determines which section received enough support and can be added to the document automatically.

The process on consenz creates a "micro-democracy" system - an option to discuss the details of a draft by many users without limiting it to a small group of representatives. Consenz combines elements of - and is inspired by - liquid democracy, direct democracy, deliberative democracy and sociocracy.

Consenz can be used as a test field for exploring different voting mechanism based on DID By creating few modules of decision making methods and implanting them on different use cases on the platform.

For example, a DAOs community can use one coin = one vote on its treasury use proposals, while for implementing change on its constitution the method will be one person = one vote, and for process changes it will set a reputation based delegation system etc.

The Project Status

Since 2018 we have been building a prototype of consenz (until lately it was available only in Hebrew) and in 2020-2021 we have completed a proof-of-concept phase. The app prototype has been used by diverse groups for different purposes in Israel, among them:

• Schools' teams used Consenz to create teaching guidelines during the covid19 restrictions.
• Unorganized protest movements used Consenz to create demands lists.
• Environmental organizations and activists used it to collaborate with government and municipality workers to create plans for dealing with the climate crisis.

Now that we have been funded by the catalyst community we have started to design and build the MVP of the platform that will be used by DAOs and other organizations.

Read more about coin voting:

(1) https://cardano.ideascale.com/c/idea/340657

(2) https://vitalik.ca/general/2021/08/16/voting3.html

Implementing Atala PRISM DID on consenz platform can became useful for improving governance processes of DAOs on cardano and other chains.

This could also help mitigate DAOs organization with current regulation demands without compromising on decentralizing or users privacy.

The technical complexity of this proposal are yet unknown. We may discover that it require development work that is out of this proposal scope.

Our strategy to overcome this potential problem by collaboration with other teams and individuals of the community that are working on complementary solutions. We are and will continue to outreach other projects, to know what they are building and to tell them about our work, and look for ways to work together.

This is a learning process, and by knowing our place in the emerging eco-system we can be a part of a holistic set of solutions without the need to build it all by ourselves.

[FEASIBILITY]

Implementation of this proposal will be on consenz minimal viable product (MVP) version that will be launched later this year (as described in our F7 funded proposal - https://cardano.ideascale.com/c/idea/380926).

The timeline estimated here is from the MVP launch day.

1. Create a plan for Atalla PRISM use as a base layer for DID on consenz platform - 8 weeks
2. Establish the code infrastructure needed - API etc. - 16 weeks
3. Design modular decision making system based on different parameters such as influence power, voting mechanism, reputation and representative setup - 20 weeks.
4. Apply modular decision making system on discussions happening on consnenz platform - 32-36 weeks.

• Build a login system integration with Atala PRISM DID: 60 dev hours * 80 USD = 4800 USD
• Design and create voting data analyzes system: 40 dev hours * 80 USD = 3200 USD
• Research and Design voting modulus: 2500 USD
• UX/UI design: 25 hours * 80 USD = 2000 USD

Total: 12,500 USD

The Team:

Consenz is a partner of ADAgov.org, Software Development Cooperative. Funded F4, F5, F6.

http://adagov.org

Consenz founder and project manager: Aharon Porath, a techno-social entrepreneur, worked with governmental and municipal agencies, a work that includes promoting legislation. Since 2011, Aharon has been involved in a few tech and non-tech ventures to develop consensus-based decision-making methods and platforms for distributed public participation goals.

Aharon has 6 years of experience as a project manager of web platforms and apps, among them - "Open Committee", a web app that enables environmental activists, NGOs and citizens to participate in the decision-making process of Israel's planning department, funded by the government's Israel Innovation Authority.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/aharon-porath-90158962

Social UX Advisor: Niels Kijf. Niels (Master Digital Media Design, Oxford) is a digital design innovator pur sang . He started the Social Design Academy to deliver UX 3.0 education. Our current software design is still targeting the individual, yet web3 is designing shared experiences for groups, a fresh new field that needs a new educational program. Levelling up UX into Social UX is one of the SDA missions for 2022.

Kenric Nelson, Ph.D: Scientist * Engineer * Educator * Executive. Founder and President of Photrek, https:\\photrek.world. Kenric is an innovative leader in the research, development, and deployment of systems for complex decision-making. He has led industry, academic, and community-service teams in the design of a variety of machine intelligence algorithms. For the Catalyst community, he served as the Community Advisor Representative to the Catalyst Circle v2 and successfully delivered the Fund 4 Diversify Voting Influence project. In these roles, Kenric has been a strong advocate for improving the quality and inclusivity of decentralized governance. Kenric completed the Atala Prism Pioneers program and is currently enrolled in the Plutus Pioneers program.

Design and Development: Sofi is a software cooperative that provides solutions for municipalities, universities, startups, well-established companies, entrepreneurs and NGOs.

The coop model relies on decentralized, consensus-based decision making, as well as total influence and wage equality for all present and future members.

https://www.soficoop.com

Product Manager: Roy Golan. Sofi Coop co-founder. Civic participation & collaboration tools enthusiast since 2012.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/roy-golan-490069a2

Community Manager & Business Development: Ofry Erlich. Sofi's business development director. Political activist with expertise in political parties campaigns & internal processes.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/ofry-ehrlich-470862119

UI/UX Designer: Tzur Sherzer. After managing a big design department, Tzur has joined the team as a lead designer, and is dedicated to the challenge of making the advanced deliberative democratic discussion interface accessible for people from all communities and backgrounds.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/tzursher

Software Architects and Developers: Aviran Katz, Nadav Moreno. With vast experience from dozens of projects, Aviran and Nadav will be leading the development team, with the backup of the entire Sofi development department, as well as external developers.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/aviran-katz-491163b3

[AUDITABILITY]

3 major milestones:

1. DID login system for consenz design
2. Decision making and voting modules map
3. UI/UX design

This proposal is for design the systems and modules needed for future implementation of diverse decision making and voting mechanism on consenz platform.

Success of this proposal will be a full and detailed plan, backed by data and research, for integrating those results and provide the community the platform for choosing different governance methods for different use cases.

Fund 6: "Consenz: A Virtual Parliament App" - not funded.

https://cardano.ideascale.com/c/idea/367771

Fund 7: "₳GOV: Policy Registry" - not funded.

https://cardano.ideascale.com/c/idea/380928

Fund 7: "₳GOV: Agreements Building Platform" - funded.

https://cardano.ideascale.com/c/idea/380926

The fund from our F7 proposal will be used to build the minimal viable product (MVP) of the platform. This new F8 proposal, if it will be funded, will be used to practice and explore DID use and different voting systems on the MVP version.

Other consenz Fund8 proposals:

1. For Lobbying for favorable legislation challenge: https://cardano.ideascale.com/c/idea/397877
2. For Community Advisor Improvements challenge: https://cardano.ideascale.com/c/idea/397872
3. For Nation Building Dapps: https://cardano.ideascale.com/c/idea/396669

SDG Rating

SDG goals:

Goal 11. Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable

Goal 16. Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels

Goal 17. Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalize the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development

SDG subgoals:

11.3 By 2030, enhance inclusive and sustainable urbanization and capacity for participatory, integrated and sustainable human settlement planning and management in all countries

16.3 Promote the rule of law at the national and international levels and ensure equal access to justice for all

16.6 Develop effective, accountable and transparent institutions at all levels

16.7 Ensure responsive, inclusive, participatory and representative decision-making at all levels

17.16 Enhance the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development, complemented by multi-stakeholder partnerships that mobilize and share knowledge, expertise, technology and financial resources, to support the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals in all countries, in particular developing countries

17.17 Encourage and promote effective public, public-private and civil society partnerships, building on the experience and resourcing strategies of partnerships

Key Performance Indicator (KPI):

11.3.2 Proportion of cities with a direct participation structure of civil society in urban planning and management that operate regularly and democratically

16.3.3 Proportion of the population who have experienced a dispute in the past two years and who accessed a formal or informal dispute resolution mechanism, by type of mechanism

16.6.2 Proportion of population satisfied with their last experience of public services

16.7.1 Proportions of positions in national and local institutions, including (a) the legislatures; (b) the public service; and (c) the judiciary, compared to national distributions, by sex, age, persons with disabilities and population groups

16.7.2 Proportion of population who believe decision-making is inclusive and responsive, by sex, age, disability and population group

17.16.1 Number of countries reporting progress in multi-stakeholder development effectiveness monitoring frameworks that support the achievement of the sustainable development goals

17.17.1 Amount in United States dollars committed to public-private partnerships for infrastructure