Kleros: justice for the unjusticed

Why did users switch from traditional mail to email? Because they saw it was a faster and cheaper way to deliver a message. Why are people switching from international bank transfers to cryptocurrencies? Because they are seeing that it’s a faster and cheaper way to transfer money – says Federico Ast, Ph.D., Blockchain Entrepreneur and Founder at Crowdjury/Kleros in Bithub.pl’s #SundayInterview.

You claim to deliver affordable and transparent justice services for all, based on decentralized autonomous organization model. How exactly does this work? Is it dedicated to companies only or individuals as well?

Federico Ast: I think the easiest way to understand this is with an example of a type of dispute which happens every day.

Imagine that Giselle is an entrepreneur based in France. She hires Miguel, an independent programmer from Guatemala, on a freelancing platform to build a new website for her company. After they agree on a fee, terms and conditions, Miguel gets to work.

A couple of weeks later, he delivers the product. But Giselle is not satisfied. She claims that the quality of Miguel’s work is considerably lower than expected. Miguel replies that he met all the specifications. Giselle is frustrated. She cannot hire a lawyer for a claim of just a couple hundred dollars with someone who is halfway around the world.

Now, imagine that, at the moment of their agreement, Giselle and Miguel decide to use Kleros as arbitration mechanism. Instead of paying Miguel directly, Giselle sends the money to a smart contract controlled by Kleros. When the dispute starts, Giselle taps a button that says SEND TO ARBITRATION and fills a simple form explaining her claim. She also uploads the product that Miguel delivered and the messages sent back and forth with Miguel during the process.

Chief is a software developer who lives thousands of miles away in Nairobi, Kenya. While on the bus commuting to work, he is checking Kleros website to find some arbitration work. He makes a couple thousand dollars a year on the side of his primary job by serving as a juror in software development disputes between freelancers and their clients. He usually works in the Website Quality subcourt, which requires skills in html, javascript and web design.

Chief activates 2 pinakion, the token used in Kleros to select jurors for disputes. The more tokens he activates, the more likely it is that he will be drawn as juror.

About an hour later, an email hits Chief’s inbox:

“You have been selected as a juror for a website quality dispute. You can access the evidence here. You have three days to analyze the evidence and submit your decision”.

Similar email are received by Benito, a programmer from Cusco and Alexandru, from Romania, who had also activated their pinakion for the dispute. They were randomly selected from a pool of almost 3,000 candidates. They will never know each other, but they will collaborate in settling the dispute between Giselle and Miguel. On the bus back home, Chief analyzes the evidence and votes who is right.

Two days later, after all jurors have voted, Giselle receives an email that says: “Jurors have ruled in your favor on the dispute”. The money in the contract is automatically transferred to Giselle. Jurors are rewarded for their work and the case is closed.

This is a simple use case involving software. But there are many other potential use cases. Especially, now that a larger part of our commerce and life are moving only, so do conflicts. Kleros is a multi-purpose system that could be also used to solve disputes in e-commerce such as eBay, sharing economy platforms such as Airbnb and Uber, crowdfunding, e-sports among many others.

Full interview on https://bithub.pl/english/sunday-interview-kleros-justice-for-the-unjusticed/