September 26, 2018

The highest decree of justice or…

The highest decree of justice or…

Can a distributed ledger ever do any good for world wide consensus? Can AI become a better judge than a homo-sapien? Is our current tribunal system straight forward and fair for everyone?

Have you ever visited the “EU capital” - Strasburg? It’s the unofficial capital of the EU. Just on the outskirts of the city centre lay the “most important” set of buildings in our justice system. The highest European council and parliament. It is here where justice meant to be served. Here people who cannot find justice in their own country, come looking for truth and equity.

Or do they? As you stroll along the area, you get a very mixed set of emotions. On one hand, the highest and the most influential justice system of the world is right here in front of you. On the other hand, quite a few posters and hand-written stories about exactly the opposite. About the corruption and the injustice of the “highest” tribunal system. But let’s try to keep the focus away from single stories.

Here is where we come to the question of AI and a decentralised law system. Can such a thing ever exist? Can a distributed, open and a permissionless ledger make a correct decision in court? Should we trust AI to make such decisions?

Decentralised law is probably the most difficult and the most arguable of the 4 pillars of decentralization. Today, the only step we have made in that direction are smart contracts. Not scalable, not turing complete (should they be?) and so on.

Today, the most difficult thing to grasp, is how can a mathematical protocol take feelings and thoughts into consideration when making such a decision, if ever.