In the days of coronavirus many aspects of life that are being transferred online. Communication, education, works, leisure, and many other activities are taking place remotely, on the internet. And governance functions are no exceptions. Politicians, managers in companies and enterprises, NGOs, and other entities conduct their governance online when it’s possible. These quarantine times are hard for many, but one this which people understand more and more – sometimes there is no need in face-to-face meetings, in physical presence. Moreover taking to account new technological trends of AI and robotization, some functions can be delegated, some work can be omitted with no harm to the final result. Following the latest tendencies, which try to eliminate additional people’s contacts, voting should also move online. And here we can speak about all types of voting, starting from electoral voting when people choose their legislative or local representatives, shareholder and executive boards voting, even voting for choosing captains in schools – all these can face the improvement which blockchain technology brings. In addition to transparency, cryptographic algorithms which secure privacy and cost-efficiency, blockchain can add tokenization as a mechanism for votes representation and the allocation of power.

Telos blockchain is built on eosio software, which makes it very easy to emit new tokens, exchange them, create smart-contracts, and vote using tokens (taking to account token balance).  Not only assets can be tokenized, but power can also have its token representation. For example in contrast to “1 person = 1 vote” this can enable another model when “1 token = 1 vote”, so the one who has more tokens might have significantly more voting power. This can be helpful in many entities, for example in small businesses which have several owners, but 1 owner invested significantly more than others, etc. On Telos, the voting system is ready and it’s called “Telos Decide”, let’s take a look more into it.

Telos Decide is an on-chain governance engine for the Telos Blockchain that offers an extensive suite of voting services and DAC/DAO tools for both users and developers. As the engine, it is already used in Telos Works (Work proposal system where Telos token holder submit proposal and vote for proposals which will benefit the Telos ecosystem), SEEDs (platform with a goal to empower humanity and heal our planet, the app is live) and in a number of new dapps which are not yet released.

This screenshot is perfectly illustrating what dapps can do with Telos Decide. (Taken from Video by Peter Bue, developer of Telos Decide)

Also you might want to check the 3-minute video presentation by Douglas Horn, Chief Architect of Telos Decide and Telos as blockchain (he is also the author of Telos whitepaper). Telos Decide used to be called Trail in the past, but still, this video features all the basic aspects, and for bigger documentation and information – please visit Github.

 

Telos Decide: Features and Services

• Secure Ballot Hosting Any user on the Telos Blockchain Network may create and publish a public ballot that is secured and hosted through Telos Decide. During ballot creation, the ballot publisher selects a specific token to use for counting votes. The default is the standard VOTE token – usable in all Telos Core Governance ballots, but Telos Decide offers additional services for creating privately managed tokens that ballots can use for counting votes instead.
• Advanced Voting Methods The Telos Decide Governance Engine boasts an extensive set of voting methods that transform how votes are applied to ballot options. With these voting methods, ballot publishers are able to customize how they want to handle differences in voters’ token balances and how those tokens should be cast among multiple choices on the ballot.
• Custom Token Treasuries Any user on the Telos Blockchain Network may create a custom token treasury that automatically inherits Telos Decide’s entire suite of voting services. These treasuries govern the minting and distribution of tokens and can also be customized to allow or disallow specific token behaviors like transferring, burning, staking, or reclaiming. Once a treasury has been created, any voter with a balance of its tokens may publish public ballots accessible to all other holders of that same token.
• Committee Management Tools Telos Decide offers a suite of committee creation and management actions that are available to any active token treasury and its voters. Developers can also hook their external smart contracts into Telos Decide’s committee tools to enable complete on-chain management of committees and their members.
• Traceable Vote Integrity Telos Decide’s custom rebalance system allows workers to recalculate vote weights when a voter’s token balance changes. Workers who perform this service are eligible for payment rewards in proportion to the amount of work they have performed compared to all other workers in the treasury. Future updates will allow for optional identity services to further enhance voting and platform features.
• Integrated Payroll System All treasuries created on the platform have access to Telos Decide’s payroll system, allowing managers to continuously fund operations within their own treasury. Multiple payrolls can be created under a single treasury, each with their own bucket of funds that are released to designated recipients at a customizable rate.
• Optional Light Ballots Light ballots disable the on-chain vote tracking portion of the voting process – this allows for developers to track votes in an off-chain database that is built by an Iris, Demux, or Spectrum style service instead.This option enables Telos Decide to power vastly more voting services by saving RAM costs for both the platform and voters, while at the same time retaining the complete traceability and auditability benefits offered by the Telos blockchain.
• Profitable Worker ServicesTelos Decide has several janitorial actions that incentivize workers on the network to maintain an optimized voting system. Workers are paid proportionally for their work in keeping the platform clean and balanced for all users.

 

If you are interested in the project more – you can start contributing on Github or discuss this in Telos Telegram Group, where Douglas Horn is very active in communication.

The time will show us if Telos Decide becomes the Future of voting, but you can already apply it in voting for the future. Even now projects, organizations, and individuals can onboard this technology and start deciding themselves in a cost-efficient, distant and transparent way.