Thanks Ben, but can you elaborate on where the synergies are regarding voting?
For example here is a dis-synergy: When BitShares has prediction markets people will start to use it for things like predicting when the president kicks the bucket. How will that go down well with Californian voting officials who are employing that same blockchain for voting services?
Blockchains are basically about anarchy (at least till now).
You need to think bigger, Pinky.
Block chains certainly contribute to our communities anarchical aspirations, but governments aren't going away any time soon. To conquer the world, we need a many-pronged approach, some of which play nicely with The Powers That Be.
You have heard us say many times that, while we want to appeal to the tribal crypto community as much as possible, we also want to make inroads into many demographics that have never heard of crypto. Supporting certain government sanctioned activities can make crypto more acceptable to that
half 90% of the world's population.
We want to appeal to special interests for everything from "save the whales" to "end the Fed", from preppies to preppers, and from the politically active to the politically exasperated. Each of these requires a different message to bring them to BitShares. Each has one thing in common: the desire to be heard! This is where we plan to make use of the tools of polling, petitions, and voting. Almost everyone has some issue they care about that can be approached under the motivation
of giving them a voice to express their opinion.
So Follow My Vote is a great on-ramp mechanism which, when coupled with good marketing strategies, can bring people into our ecosystem who didn't even know they cared about crypto technology.
Then there's Dan's vision of a global small town where people interact based on
reputation rather than anonymity. Certified identity verification technology, essential for voting and petition and demographically aware polling will contribute greatly to a society where
your reputation is an asset you will want to behave well to protect.
That's why the latest Follow My Vote video is particularly interesting. It shows how to bootstrap your public identity.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJstfzHBU38Success of BitShares depends on expanding beyond the world of the crypto-literate. We will soon be able to do opinion-based targeted marketing funnels you have not yet dreamed of. Follow My Vote is a key ingredient in that far bigger strategy.
Of course, when you want to deal anonymously you should have a way to do so. But reputation based transactions are a huge untapped opportunity.