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Bitcoin Foundation Elections: Distributed Opinion System

Last Updated March 4, 2021 4:42 PM
Joel Dalais
Last Updated March 4, 2021 4:42 PM

BF3aThe Bitcoin Foundation Elections Committee has released a unique new project that has been in the works for the last year.

“a new official Distributed Opinion System for the Board Elections” ~ Michael Toomim .

With a newly created website dedicated to this system, The Distributed Opinion can be found here, https://bitcoin.consider.it/. Foundation members and non-members can view the candidates and their current standings with regards to the opinions of the Foundation members.

Bitcoin Foundation members can change their opinions at any time after giving their initial thoughts on a candidate and placing their initial sliding perception. From a negative to positive, or anywhere in between, members can leave their rating on one or multiple candidates.

Clicking on a candidate’s picture or name will bring you to that candidate’s profile, where you find out a bit more detailed information on them. On their profile page, you can also view the pros and cons that members have put forward to either support or decry the candidate.

Make sure to click Expand full text to see the full profile.

Users can agree with a comment to ‘stack’ weight on an opinion if they feel the need, which might have an effect on candidate’s policies and standing. You can also give pros and cons to the same candidate, but only one opinion towards the ‘smiley’ or the ‘not so smiley’ side of the scale.

Will the New Election System Work?

The astounding fascination I have with this new site is the inclusiveness potential. I think it is brilliant that the Foundation is acting as the first user, but imagine such a system in a decentralized voting mechanism when it comes down to more than just voting for Director seats.

Perhaps, where to hold a conference, how a political party should define its mandate, or how new laws should be shaped when introduced to a nation. The technology is here now where we can make use of such amazing tools, and use them to shape a representative system of the people. I for one look forward to how this particular tool will be used further in the future.

Michael Toomim, who is coordinating the project, had this to say;

“The Distributed Opinion actually developed from my partner Travis Kriplean’s breakthrough PhD research—it’s a new social protocol that scales decision-making across humans. Compare this with how Bitcoin has a computer protocol that scales the minting of currency across miners. When we pair these together, we get the world’s first Decentralized Decision-Making for our Distributed Currency. But both technologies have enormous application beyond currency. It’s a wild time we live in, huh.”

Please note: The votes on this site are not official, they are only for discussion and debate purposes, to assist the election, the candidates, and most importantly, the public. The official voting will not commence until February the 13th.

Disclaimer: The author is a Lifetime member of the Bitcoin Foundation.

Images from The Distributed Opinion.