Free Range Voting and Network of Trust projects

[Michael Allan]

Hi Hans,

If there are misunderstandings, then I'm mostly to blame.  I neglected
to document the technical details, especially for the voter register.
I'm just starting on that, here:
http://metagovernment.org/wiki/Streetwiki

It's a work in progress, and all are welcome to contribute.

> It looks like you are trying to do too many things at once. For example in 
> another discussion you are talking about voters with addresses and voters 
> without addesses. Next step would be voters without names, like a Wikipedia 
> IP-only edit or so, I guess.
>
> Here it makes sense for an early implementation to restrict the problem 
> domain by (for example) defining that a voter always has to register with 
> some kind of objectively verifyable personal information, being it his 
> address, a copy of her phone bill, her cell/mobile or her social security 
> number. This scenario would be much more realistic, in my opinion.

Thomas was probably talking about separating the registration and
voting identities through a "proxy blind" (I think that's the correct
term).  We haven't documented that, yet.  This is just a stub:
http://metagovernment.org/wiki/Streetwiki#Proxy_blind

It would be too much to attempt (as you say) for the first cut of the
streetwiki.  We'll need at least an additional week to prototype a
proxy blind.  (Then the possible exploits and weaknesses are
mind-boggling!  But we can at least float something.)

> Another issue is that if you require n+1 people to grant level n trust 
> which is sufficient for voting, this automatically means that you can game 
> the system with n+2 people, because at that level you can create phonies 
> which can create voting phonies. To avoid this a much more elaborated 
> system of trusting dependencies is required than the one
> described (at least as I understand it right now).

http://habermas.liqd.de/W%C3%A4hler-Registrierung

I think what Thomas was saying here, is that in order to increment
your trust level (currently at M) you need to find at least M+1
trusters, each of whom is already at a level of M+1 or higher.  Then
you'll rise to M+1, too.

I've documented the use case for detection of phonies here:
http://metagovernment.org/wiki/Streetwiki#Policing_for_local_sock_puppets
(Sorry for the misunderstandings.  I should have documented it
earlier.)

Comment and critique are welcome.  If anyone sees additional problems
- or if the explanations are unclear - please take a moment to point
it out.

-- 
Michael Allan

Toronto, +1 647-436-4521
http://zelea.com/