A Grassroots Architecture to Supplant Global Digital Platforms by a Global Digital Democracy

TL;DR

The paper tackles the concentration of power in global digital platforms by proposing a smartphone-first, federated Grassroots architecture that supports local digital communities and their federation into a global digital democracy. It introduces the Blocklace, a partially ordered CRDT-based data structure, and a layered Grassroots Protocol Stack that separates dissemination, equivocation exclusion, and ordering to enable democratic governance without centralized miners. Key concepts include digital sovereignty, Grassroots systems, and Grassroots programming languages, which together empower local communities to form digital economies and sovereign governance. The approach aims to provide scalable, transparent governance through Grassroots Federations and reality-aware social choice, with potential for a global democratic architecture that is more inclusive and resilient to sybil attacks and centralization.

Abstract

We present an architectural alternative to global digital platforms termed grassroots, designed to serve the social, economic, civic, and political needs of local digital communities, as well as their federation. Grassroots platforms may offer local communities an alternative to global digital platforms while operating solely on the smartphones of their members, forsaking any global resources other than the network itself. Such communities may form digital economies without initial capital or external credit, exercise sovereign democratic governance, and federate, ultimately resulting in the grassroots formation of a global digital democracy.

Figures (3)

• Figure 1: A Grassroots Architecture for the Digital Realm. Bold letters map to references as follows: [a]$\mapsto$shapiro2021multiagent, [b]$\mapsto$shapiro2023grassrootsshapiro2023grassrootsBA, [c]$\mapsto$shapiro2024gpl, [d]$\mapsto$shapiro2023grassrootsshapiro2023grassrootsBAshapiro2023gsnalmeida2024blocklace, [e]$\mapsto$lewispye2023flashlewis2023grassrootsalmeida2024blocklace, [f]$\mapsto$shapiro2023gsn[g]$\mapsto$keidar2023cordial, [h]$\mapsto$shapiro2024gclewis2023grassroots, [i]$\mapsto$cardelli2020digital, [j]$\mapsto$abramowitz2021democraticabramowitz2021beginningbulteau2021aggregationelkind2022complexityelkind2021unitedmeir2020sybilshahaf2019sybilshapiro2018incorporatingshapiro2018incorporating, [k]$\mapsto$shapiro2024gc, [l]$\mapsto$halpern2024federatedhalpern2024grassroots.
• Figure 2: A. Blockchain. The first block on the left is the genesis block. The blockchain is (i) tamper-proof, as a payload or pointer cannot be changed without being detected; (ii) non-repudiable, as a signed block or payload cannot be repudiated by the block's signatory, and (iii) totally-ordered. B. Blocklace. Agents produce their own (colour-coded) signed genesis blocks and interlinked virtual blockchains (e.g., the red blocks by themselves do not form a blockchain). The blocklace is similarly (i) tamper-proof and (ii) non-repudiable, but is (iii) partially-ordered.
• Figure 3: Grassroots Federation. An imaginary grassroots federation of the people of a village, which has four neighbourhoods (A-D). People have assembled into various communities of interest (secular and religious woman, religious man), of which the four neighbourhoods, the women and the religious men were admitted as child federations/communities to the village federation. The village is a member of the regional federation. The federation of the women of the village is a member of both the village federation and the regional women's federation, which in turn is both a member of the regional federation as well as the higher (national?) women's federation.