RE: Can Blockchains Clean Up Elections And Stop Vote Rigging? Sierra Leone Already Leads The World!
Yup! This is one of my most passionate use case activism areas. I made a conscous choose NOT to send in my absentee (expat) pen and paper voting form for the 2016 Presidential Election because I just ASSUMED it would be tampered with. One promising thing is that the current administration has expressed a SERIOUS interest in harnessing blockchain in multiple use cases. Since I know that President Trump holds a serius grievance about the election process being tampered with (as those of us "smart" people saw with our own eyes during the election, there is AT LEAST a very REAL chance that we can see blockchain-based voting in the US (and other major western countries) within the next five years. Fingers crossed, as I REFUSE to vote without the protection afforded by the blockchain, but will instead use my activism as my "vote". Good post topic...
I still maintain that I have seen no real evidence that Trump is a genuine challenge to the corrupt system that has been corrupt since it's inception. I am clear that the 'presidents' are chosen primarily for their ability to deceive subsets of the population into thinking they are going to get change. The degree to which any one person believes any of them is the degree to which they are in the target demographic for this puppet.
Politicians saying what you want to hear can actually extend to them saying that they will smash the system. Actions speak louder than words.
Its true. Just that the whole system is kinda too bad.
So it appears we will have to POLITELY disagree. I have reason to believe that Trump is going to make MUCH more significant change than post presidents. We are only getting warmed up. When I look at what he's ALREADY done, on numerous fronts, (ex. the most recent passing of "Right To Try" medical regulation) is definitely something I can admire. If he follows through on the interest that he (and many of his advisers) has declared - about having a sincere interest in implementing blockchain technology for various important public institutional functions (ex. voting) then I will be happy to settle for a "less bad" president, which in my opinion, can't be NEARLY as bad is the former handful we've had in there at the helm. I am sure there is some validity to your claim that politicians are "all talk". But perhaps the new disruptive technologies which we are all working to advance will add a new dimension of transparency to the politcal process, and make politics "less weighted upon human flaw". I am a REASONABLE Trump supporter, and I will continue to be as long as he continues to make ACTIONABLE progress on issues which I believe are important to the progress of the United States, and the world for that matter, as I am an expat, and have had the opportunity to see MUCH WORSE cultures - and their political institutions - and so feel some responsibility to be an ambassador of sorts to try and help facilitate some changes in parts of the world that are UBER-dysfunctional. That's all I can say on the subject for now...
Real change happens locally. Right to try had already been passed in 40 states. Congress and the President were just catching up. https://fee.org/articles/the-right-to-try-war-was-actually-won-on-the-state-level/ I sincerely hope Trump can make some real change. Deregulation is another area he has being doing well. Stopping wars he still needs to work on. I will give me credit where credit is due but will call out his idiotic policies just the same.
Hey @girthbomb! Great to see that there are others here on Steemit who are taking the more REALISTIC "cautious openmindedness" in relation to Trump and his administration. Over the years (like many others - perhaps it's also just part of the aging process) I have gravitated more towards this "cautious openmindedness" approach in basically all of my affairs. It's the safest approach in my opinion. Part of this perspective involves focusing on RESULTS (that is, what people DO, and NOT just what they SAY). "The proof is in the pudding" as the old saying goes. But I think most "smart" people are AT LEAST able to realize that Trump (and his ADMINISTRATION - "no man is an island" after all) are shaking things up (in primarily a "good way" in my opinion) and producing some REAL RESULTS - and some quite impressive ones at that. You make the good point that "real change happens locally", but I would just EXTEND that by saying that there can be SOME INFLUENCE from the non-local level which then makes it EASIER to produce the results wanted on the local level. This plays out, especially, in many of the blockchain tools which the Trump administration has - on NUMEROUS occasions now - FORMALLY expressed interest in. Here is one of those actual articles which I shared from the "Bitcoins & Gravy " Twitter account I admin a few months ago ( Twitter : https://twitter.com/BitcoinsNGravy , Steemit : @bitcoinsandgravy Article : https://www.coindesk.com/trump-white-house-doubles-us-commitment-blockchain/) I tweet out as many of these as I can, because I believe that blockchain tech is going to be a MAJOR game-changer for a MULTITUDE of government-related, and social, issues - and especially so if the Trump administration (and any future administrations) is in full support of it. People can argue all day about who is REALLY in control of the US (and other) governments. But by focusing on the RESULTS produced by an administration, and the REAL-WORLD ethical effects of this results, I think the "open-minded" person living in this chaotic time CAN achieve SOME sort of sense of the "method to the madness" in ALL SORTS of social, political, economic, etc. issues of our time - INCLUDING that of the Trump administration, of course. All I will say in conclusion is that I GENERALLY like MOST of what I see being done by the Trump administration. That is, there is a LOGIC to the decisions and effects which AT LEAST give me a sense that RELATIVELY COMPETENT people are steering the ship right now. That is something that I DID NOT have in basically ALL of the previous administration which I lived through since my birth in 1976. Hope this comment s well received, and inspired some thoughts/ideas/etc. PEACE...
Thanks for the links to the additional articles. It is a very fascinating ride we are currently with blockchain growth. The more we realize, we don't need centralized authority the better off we will be. Being able to achieve consensus without violence is where the technology is heading and that will be a great thing.