Uwe Serdült
As of 1 April 2017 I am working as a professor at Ritsumeikan University, Japan, in the College of Information Science and Engineering while keeping some projects as a principle investigator at the Centre for Democracy Studies Aarau (ZDA), University of Zurich, Switzerland. At Ritsumeikan University I am also running the Digital Governance Systems Lab.
In this dual position I teach and do interdisciplinary research in several domains of digital governance. I am particularly interested in internet based platforms and tools for citizens (e-participation) as well as public administrations (e-government) enhancing transparency and deliberation in an information society.
From 2007 to 2017 I used to work at the ZDA as a senior researcher and lecturer. Before joining the ZDA I taught and worked as a post-doctoral researcher and lecturer at various universities in Switzerland (ETH Zurich, University of Zurich, University of Geneva).
Previously, research stays and guest lectures lead me to Hungary (Andrassy University, 2016), Austria (Karl-Franzens-Universität Graz, 2015), Poland (PU Cracow, 2013/14), Japan (Ritsumeikan University, Kyoto, 2011; Waseda University, Tokyo, 2002/2003), and the USA (University of Pittsburgh, PA, 1999/2000).
University of Zurich, Blockchain Center UZH, Ritsumeikan University
Session
While elections are not the only factor, they are arguably one of the most important pillars for the functioning of liberal democracies. Recent evidence from around the globe demonstrates that conducting elections in a free and fair manner is not a straightforward process. One constant concern is the role of financial contributions for political campaigns. A discussion arose particularly in the USA, where economists and legal scholars suggested to have election campaigns financed by vouchers. Taking the concept of campaign vouchers a step further to the sphere of blockchain technology seems straightforward. As a general preliminary remark, we can state that vouchers are not alien to economies. There are, for example, education, health as well as food vouchers which were or are still being used for populations at large or for very specific groups. Once the coin is created it will be distributed to each citizen who can either donate it directly to one of the registered, legitimate beneficiaries which in most cases would be political parties or election candidates. Depending on the number of citizens, beneficiaries and economy the amount of altcoins would have to be defined, not too high, not too low, such as for example in Seattle (two vouchers for 50 USD). In order not to disclose their political affinity, as a function of vote secrecy so to speak, shielded addresses must be supported for the first transaction by a citizen. To support such a feature, anonymous zero-knowledge proof options such as zk-SNARK could be used (monitored by a state variable in the blockchain). Furthermore, it would be interesting to observe whether coins will be distributed among political parties to a degree proportional to voter share or whether we can see some more altruistic donor behaviour following principles of equality and fairness.