Bitcoin software can replace the ballot box.

Bitcoin is the topic du jour but is at bottom a privacy tool applied to money, an anonymizing security protocol.   Researchers at the University of Waterloo applied it to voting to create a secure and unique vote that can't be traced back by the people who count them.   Participation could jump and corrupt political machines (where present) will lose some grip.  The method can be extended to voting even on parliamentary bills. Why rely on representatives in Ottawa when we can represent ourselves?  (Trick question.)

"The trick to bitcoin might be that it doesn't have to be a currency at all. Maybe cryptocurrency’s fundamental value is as a security protocol—a safe, anonymous, hack-proof network that decentralizes trust and democratizes power. ...  Online voting in its current form— is very vulnerable to fraud, cyberattack, and government corruption. The theory is that the bitcoin security protocol matched with anonymizing software and a totally open source voting infrastructure would solve for a lot of these problems.  Like a bitcoin transaction, the entire process is recorded in the blockchain public ledger, repurposed to verify votes and avoid voter fraud. So instead of placing your trust in a central authority like, say, the ballot counters tallying up hanging chads in Florida, the network is anonymous but transparent, and audited by the crowd.
"Just replace a coin in your head with a vote, and run it the exact same dynamic,"  (Link to story at Motherboard.)

From the source of the source at New Scientist:

(Researchers) "at the University of Waterloo, also in Ontario, realised they could convert a message - for example, a list of codes that securely link voters to their votes - into a Bitcoin address. Sending a tiny fraction of a bitcoin - a small transaction - to that address would allow the holder of that list to store it in the public record without revealing its contents. When they later publish the message for verification, anyone can repeat the conversion to a Bitcoin address and confirm its age by checking the public record.
Faking Bitcoin's public record would be very difficult as you'd need more computing power than the rest of the Bitcoin network combined - a feature that ensures the currency's security".

 One man person featherless biped, one vote.

 

Do you have the copyright on your own DNA? Insurers would like to see your genetic report. Welcome to a world without privacy.

This is a little scary but it's coming. Can you refuse to let the life insurance company see your DNA?  You let them take a drop of blood to check for a few things including drugs but suppose they spend a few bucks to do your whole genome?  Lawmakers are putting up little barriers but your DNA will be like a piece of gossip that someone will divulge somewhere sometime in your life.  It's under $1000 already and three quarters of a million Americans have had at least partial sequencing.

I talked to a GP back from a Hawaiian medical conference and this was one of the issues discussed there.  There are some costly health problems that can be guessed at before your baby is born and that little kid may never ever be eligible for health insurance.

From an NYT story:  Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company, asks potential customers in Massachusetts about genetic testing — and stipulates that refusing to share results could lead to a declined application or an extra premium. Jean Towell, a spokeswoman, says applicants are told “out of fairness” that insurers have the right to decline coverage if any medical information is omitted. .... 12 other companies ask no explicit questions about genetic testing. But when Dr. Green asked company executives why not, he said, “at least one of them has told me, ‘We would do this, but we don’t want to be the first.' ”