Can Smart Ledgers Lead To Smarter Social Decisions?

“You know, comrades,” says Stalin, “that I think in regard to this: I consider it completely unimportant who in the party will vote, or how; but what is extraordinarily important is this — who will count the votes, and how.” [Boris Bazhanov, Memoirs of Stalin's Former Secretary, 1992] If you want to change the system, change the system. Under the many pressures facing society, such as globalisation, immigration, inequality, or pollution, people are exploring how changing monetary and voting systems might help make better social decisions. At the same time, technology is dramatically lowering the obstacles to implementing Smart Ledgers that would enable these decisions to be automated and separated from power structures. Some proposed uses of Smart Ledgers could make a material difference to the way we organise money, democracy, and society