Plurality in practice in Note part 3 by mashbean brief
According to my research, there are two axes for executing Plurality: practicality and purpose.
The first axis is whether the tool is accessible to the general public, which can be either universal or forward-looking. Universal tools can be seen in large-scale policy discussions, such as the vTaiwan platform's discussion of Uber and taxis in Taiwan. Forward-looking tools are often found in Proof of Concept projects by international think tanks, such as the Serpertine Gallery and Radical Exchange's collaboration on designing pricing and tax systems for artworks in the Future Art Ecosystem, as seen in PCO, Partial Common Ownership.
The second axis is based on different purposes, which are consensus-building and creating public goods. For example, the Uber policy discussion aims to find consensus among different industry groups, which is Cooperate Across Diversity, even from opposing sides. Creating public goods involves designing systems to create a better collaborative environment, such as the Distribution system of Gitcoin Grant, which uses Quadratic Funding. This successful allocation system has made more people in the web3 ecosystem use the same method. For example, token airdrops in the Cosmos blockchain ecosystem have used so-called fairdrops, airdrop with the letter F at front, which is also a form of Quadratic Distribution, to create more effective allocation scenarios.
Therefore, these two axes create four quadrants, which are:
1. Using tools to build consensus among the majority
2. Creating action consensus in forward-looking areas
3. Allowing the majority to use public goods
4. Creating public goods in forward-looking areas
Many tools for executing Plurality have been mentioned in the book Radical Markets, such as Quadratic Voting. The book also mentions other methods, such as the Harberger Tax or PCO, which create effective asset liquidity, or data cooperatives that combat artificial intelligence. Since the book was published in 2018, many of these concepts have been implemented in various organizations.
Why do many of these cases occur in the web3 world? This is because the institutions derived from Plurality often involve relatively complex mathematical calculations or allocation processes that ordinary people may find difficult to calculate using only their minds. Therefore, smart contracts, AI tools, and other technologies have become important core tools. For example, Layer2 blockchain Optimism recently completed the second round of Retroactive public good funding (RetroPGF), matching millions of dollars with innovative projects that have been underway for some time, all because smart contracts make it easy to perform complex calculations. The collective intelligence decision-making platform Narwhal has also recently started using GhatGPT to automate the collation of majority opinions.
Therefore, from the perspective of Plurality, highly developed technologies do not necessarily need to be far from democratic society. The future world does not necessarily have to be only two options, Abundance Technocracy or Accelerated Capitalism. In the Plurality view, the third way has emerged, and it is called Digital Democracy.