Once about a time, in a city of intellect and art, the citizens of Ancient Greece had a revolutionary idea: that ordinary people - not only the elite - should have a say in the governance of a city.

A concept that has taken many forms throughout centuries, stringing us along with the hope of finally distributing the grasps of power; the hope of our small voices reaching a large audience and igniting societal change. With the emergence of intelligent technologies, the dream of a fair and collective government may finally be realized.

The Consensus AI project is an open-sourced platform, driven by a native cryptocurrency and designed to improve the governance of any type of organized structure including communities, companies, cities, counties, and countries.

At the core, it will host a set of principals that will guide the system’s development and drive its evolution. Consensus AI will give solutions to the most complex problems in our world; problems too large in scale for individuals, groups, or government to be able to comprehend themselves. What’s being proposed? It’s an automated, data-driven solution using blockchain and AI technology that can predict possible outcomes, including short and long term scenarios.

It reads like the fantasy of a utopian society, crafted onto the pages of a sci-fi novel. And maybe this is our future; maybe this is the beginning of the world as we know it crumbling under our feet. As a new, advanced society appears before our eyes that wears the face of artificial intelligence. Born to conjure up answers that we would spend lifetimes searching for. I see this platform turning into a massive beating heart, designed to connect all of the human experience into a collective consciousness.

The project will kick things off by launching a decentralized research platform, giving cryptocurrency rewards in exchange for public data collection. If I’m willing to give out info about myself to access a network, I’d much rather get paid for that valuable data than let the Silicon Valley behemoths reap the profits.

Following organizational research, a machine learning service named AI Advisor will be launched, which acts as the platform’s core. In the future, the network will open up for entrepreneurs to build Dapps using the Consensus smart contract application, AI tech, and eID authenticated trusted nodes. With Estonia being the model for a digital world, Consensus plans to launch to Estonia’s eResident community of 25,000 people as a pilot.

Consensus was founded by Oleg Gutsol, Canadian entrepreneur and software developer, and also the mind behind the photo distribution platform, 500px. He served as Head of Global Growth of the Republica of Estonia eResidency, where he witnessed the inner workings of a progressive, digital nation. He knows that countless countries are interested in moving towards a digital government, and he’s put together a team with a wide range of skills capable of putting this idea into motion. They’re currently working on the funding through an upcoming token sale, with details coming soon on their blog.

While reading the Consensus white paper, I found it hard to contain the yearning I felt for a world in which countries were re-built and ruled with intellect and collective reason, rather than power and greed. I know I don’t feel alone in my desire for the next generation to experience the unification of humans dedicated to improving our world. With projects such as this one, we are given a map and a compass. Now we need to help each other along the way.

https://consensus.ai/whitepaper.pdf