You may have heard about Flux, a new political party that promises to bring direct democracy to Australia through a blockchain solution.

The solution is similar to parties like Senator Online, now known as Online Direct Democracy, but with a couple of key differences. Firstly, the blockchain element of Flux gives certainty about how the vote is cast. Secondly, and most importantly, the Flux system allows people to trade votes. So people may trade their votes on the TPP for votes on the great barrier reef. 

I personally think that such as system has serious issues that are yet to be fully explored. The blockchain allows people to prove which votes go where. This is an issue for anonymous voting. Since we know how votes are traded, they may be traded for money. People may trade away all their votes to save the Great Barrier Reef, only to have the same issue come up again. 

There are lots of other issues, and you can see the Flux AMA on Reddit for both questions and answers from Flux. 

We were asked if we would use the platform by Max Kaye, the founder of Flux. Despite our reservations about the ability to game the Flux system,  I think that if the Science Party were given the ability to have a say in how the Flux senator votes, we would have to use it. The chance to change the vote of a senator would simply be too great to ignore, especially if we were given substantial say over the senator's voting record. 

It is an interesting idea, and it certainly would cause a stir if they were to be elected.