Using Blockchain to Vote On Blockchain Governance

(Updated 7/24) The recent SegWit2x drama in Bitcoin world has been an interesting study.  In addition, the voting has also been interesting to watch.  Currently at vote are two technical improvement to the bitcoin Blockchain.  This decision needs to be agreed upon by more than 50% of the Blockchain miners but really you want 80%+ to agree to reduce the chance of a “hard fork” or split.  This entire saga is a demonstration of how to galvanized a global group of governors to make a decision and how to use the blockchain to conduct voting in a trusted way that guarantees immutability and transparency. Any blockchain can be used but in this case, we are referring to the one used by bitcoin (and therefore, why it’s capitalized).

Blockchain -- The Next Internet

When bitcoin gained some notoriety in 2013, I did a little research and then put it away to work on it later.  This summer I decided to dedicate part of my vacation to bringing myself back up to speed on “Blockchain” and “Bitcoin” by reading the book by Don and Alex Tapscott titled “Blockchain Revolution -- How the technology Behind Bitcoin Is Changing Money, Business, and The World”.  

I’m now leaning toward the thought that the blockchain has the potential to impact society in a way that might surpass the birth of the internet.  Core to this impact is the “disintermediation” that it will bring.  The millions of people that intermediate transactions and profit off of the exchange of wealth will largely be removed.  Entire industries may be shoved into upheaval.  What Apple did to the phone industry, music industry, application industry, gaming industry, etc... blockchain has the potential to transform financial industry, real estate industry, securities and stock markets, music industry (again), government voting, corporate governance,  and more.