Decentralized Review System for Transparent and Accountable Governance
The audience can use this document to learn how we introduce decentralization into review systems by utilizing technologies like blockchain and IPFS . We give a systematic motivation for blockchain based digital transformation . It will clarify how reviews in a decentralized review system are impervious to manipulation and why it is open , responsible , and reliable .
The success of any government relies on the ability to build trust among its citizens . Reviews are crucial in creating a sense of being heard among citizens . Reviews can help the government understand the needs of its citizens and improve its services accordingly . However , simply having a review system is not enough if citizens do not trust the system ' s integrity . Therefore , the objective is to build a review system that everyone can trust and cannot be tampered with , even by its maintainers . A decentralized system whose properties match these requirements will be perfect for our needs .
For a very long time , centralized review systems ( CRS ) have been the norm in most sectors and areas [ 1 ], both in private and government sectors . Reviews have a long-lasting effect on businesses affecting their sales , customer loyalty , reputation , etc . There are confirmed instances of several agencies brushing , censoring , tampering , and inflating reviews to derive business benefits across a range of industries . [ 2 ] presents insight into inflated reviews in the hotel industry ; a similar incident of the review company Yelp is reported in [ 3 ]. Many such incidents have been reported about AirBnB [ 4 ], [ 5 ], Amazon [ 6 ], Alibaba [ 7 ], [ 8 ], etc . owners have been abusing the review system in a myriad of ways .
Because of the centralized nature of CRS , as detailed above , the reviews have become less trustworthy , transparent , and accountable . The motivation to tamper can have a similar negative impact if CRS continues to be used in governmental agencies . Traditional review systems can be subject to political influence , undermining their effectiveness and impartiality . Political influence can take many forms , such as pressurizing to downplay or ignore negative findings . Besides these shortfalls , centralized review systems are vulnerable to security flaws , wherein hostile actors might falsify reviews or steal confidential data , endangering the safety and security of users .
The shortcomings of a centralized review system come from its single point of failure and / or compromise nature . Reviews are stored under a single entity , making verifying their authenticity difficult in case of distrust . To overcome this problem , a decentralized solution can be adopted . Storing multiple copies of reviews across the network eliminates the single point of failure . Since the reviews are maintained by a disjoint authority , the motivations for tampering are ruled out .
52 April 2023