What we're reading: Dreams of democracy on the blockchain

Democracy.Earth, an organization led by Argentinian activist Santiago Siri, has dreamt up a complex system, codenamed Sovereign, that would use blockchain technology to enable citizens to vote and govern themselves, according to a Wired profile.

If the dream of bitcoin, the token generated by Satoshi Nakamoto’s blockchain, was to free money from central bank control, then the dream of Sovereign is to free politics from central government control.

Yes, but: While blockchain technology is appealing because transactions are immutable, there are still several potential problems with using it for voting. Those include risks that voters could be coerced into voting a certain way, devices could be hacked and attackers could vote on their behalf, questions over voting tokens gaining a financial value, concerns over the cost of voting, and the rising challenge of creating transparency in voting while also keeping voters anonymous.