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Information is power

Information is power. The next big shift in society will be a data revolution. It will go beyond “being woke” about injustice in society to correcting injustice in society. We are not here to “call out” what’s wrong, we are here to fix it. Listen to what the President has said on this topic:

“This idea of purity and you’re never compromised and you’re always politically woke and all that stuff, you should get over that quickly. The world is messy. There are ambiguities. People who do really good stuff have flaws.”

“If I tweet that you didn’t do something right … then I can sit and feel pretty good about myself because, man, you see how woke I was, I called you out … That’s not activism. That’s not bringing about change. If all you’re doing is casting stones, you’re probably not going to get that far.”

How can you bring about change?

Activism brings about change. Change is hard because the world is messy. Change takes time, activism takes effort. There is no quick fix to the world’s problems. The real question is, “are you willing to put in the effort to change the world?” If your answer is “no” then stop reading this article. If your answer is “maybe it depends” then stop reading this article. If your answer is, “I’m willing to do whatever it takes to make society fundamentally more fair and equal,” then I have good news for you. There is a solution, but only for those people who are willing to sacrifice hundreds of hours of their time.

The answer is that any real and meaningful change to society requires protests to target a government’s laws. The target of all meaningful societal change should be the laws that govern the social order and the economy of a country. Changing the laws of a country is hard. But once the laws of a democratic society are changed, this provides a solid foundation upon which to build future social and economic freedoms.

Even if a majority of society became “woke” there would be no guarantee that society would stay that way. Lots of US companies are only now realizing how much institutional racism has created a system of unequal privilege. Society’s fundamentally unequal structure has resulted in real harm to black and brown communities. This realization won’t last forever, societies have a tendency to revert back to the dominant status quo. People who live in democratic societies that want permanent change must enact new legislation. Changing a countries laws is the only way to bring about permanent change.

How can technology assist?

Would the George Floyd protests have been possible prior to the smartphone revolution? Even if the details of George Floyd’s murder had been published, there would have been no visceral reaction from people without 8 minutes and 46 seconds of video. Would it have been possible to organize global protests prior to the social media revolution? Even if people heard about these events through the reporting of major news organizations, this information alone would not have galvanized the global protests we saw in 2020.

Video captured via a smartphone and protests organized via social media were fundamental game-changers. Social media platforms such as Facebook, Youtube, Twitter, and Instagram played an important role in changing people’s attitudes about police brutality. It feels as if it would be impossible to erase the video record of George Floyd’s death from the internet. The advancement of technology has provided a way to create a lasting record of injustice, but is it permanent? Were these social media platforms created with the purpose of allowing people to publish permanent records of police brutality?

How can blockchain technology assist?

Not all acts of injustice have video footage, not all unlawful actions can go viral on social media. We need a way for communities to create a permanent record for every unlawful act. We need to have a report of all unjust actions. This will create permanent pressure upon our elected political officials to change the law. We need a new type of whistleblowing platform.

Social media platforms are inadequate for this task. They were not created specifically for the purpose of recording these kinds of events. Social media companies do not have a way of verifying the truth of all claims of harassment and brutality by authorities and governments. This means that some videos are being removed for violating community guidelines. Even records which are currently acceptable today, are not afforded permanent protections tomorrow. If community guidelines change these records can be erased if Facebook, Google, and Twitter decide to erase them.

We need a new type of communication technology to allow communities to create their own permanent record of injustice. Information is power and technology provides people with the means of leveraging it. An upgrade to our technology means an upgrade to our ability to communicate vital pieces of information to each other. Once people have the information, they can more effectively coordinate a response.

The next revolution evolves from merely communicating this information to verifying the honesty of those who are conveying it. Effective whistleblower software must have a way of guaranteeing the honesty of a community’s claims. It’s not enough to merely make these records permanent, we need some means to verify the integrity of those who are creating the record. We need financial escrows that are capable of creating a permanent record and verifying it’s content. This requires communities to use blockchain technology.

What are financial escrows and why are they relevant?

An escrow is a financial contract between two or more parties. This contract requires the parties to entrust their money to a third-party agent such as an insurer. Future ownership of funds requires the parties to fulfill their predetermined contractual obligations. This may involve a process of submitting a valid insurance claim to determine if they are entitled to receive these funds.

An insurance policy is an escrow. All of the policyholders entrust their premiums with the insurer and the insurer uses those premiums to pay out valid claims. Although it isn’t wrong to say that peer-to-peer insurance coverage is at the heart of this revolution, the word insurance has too much baggage associated with it. The word escrow although more unfamiliar is a better description of how the technology assists the parties to reach consensus.

Financial escrows are the best tools communities can use to create legal records. If you want to understand how “information escrows” and “financial escrows” are related to reporting sexual assault, this article is helpful:

Information Escrows Get a Power-up

TandaPay uses financial escrows to allow communities to award insurance claims for incidents of police brutality or sexual assault. In doing so, these communities create a permanent record of the incident such that anyone can verify the record’s integrity.

But what is TandaPay?

TandaPay is financial escrow technology which is used to create a whistleblowing record. This record provides proof that a claim approved by a community is valid. It will take hundreds of man-hours to convert TandaPay’s prototype into a viable app that communities can use. First, more people are required to study the protocol. Once they become convinced of its value, the next step is to implement it.

What can I do?

The world was moved to take action because a brave 17-year-old girl recorded George Floyd’s death on video. This was a heroic act. It wasn’t easy for her to do what she did, it came at a cost to her own personal well being. Once TandaPay is built, it will be difficult to train communities to use the protocol effectively. The work ahead of us is monumental and complex. Participants need to become convinced that this solution is worth their time, energy, and effort. There is only one way to begin; you simply need to take the task of educating yourself seriously. Start by reading these articles: