How to build a self-governing business: formulating the "laws of robotics" Hamster Marketplace

    The idea of ​​a decentralized trading platform for small and medium-sized manufacturers of gadgets and electronics, formulated by the manufacturer of PlayPad children's tablets Denis Bulavin, recalls the dream of a tired manufacturer, whom the genie promised good luck in all endeavors:

    Do retailers hold contracts?
    - And let's do our marketplace, online and for our audience.
    Tired of fighting with your elbows for the same regiments with majors selling 200 times more devices per month than you do in a year?
    - So, we sell only niche electronics and gadgets.
    It is impossible to come out of the junk flows from Ali so cheap that it doesn’t matter if it is junk?
    “Then we will only have unique products, and not“ sort of, but 20 times cheaper. ”
    The Amazon commission is more expensive than the margin in any of your dreams?”
    - So, the marketplace should work without profit, so that its services cost exactly as much as it cost to provide them.
    But who will manage it then?
    - Yes, we ourselves, the vendors, will manage and will, by the

    way, if you are a vendor, and recognize your headache - please answersome questions in this google form .

    This is an idea that requires decentralization of trust itself, without which transparent and reliable self-organization of thousands of actors unfamiliar with each other is impossible, appeared right on time: when the blockchain was already invented. But one thing is to successfully drive and store small data packets. And quite another thing - to embed a multi-level global business into a two-dimensional structure, including such powerful areas as logistics, support and payments, while maintaining its ability to function. Will it be just as comfortable for you to live in place of the house on his full-size drawing? It turns out that the answer to the marketing request of a project similar to the Hamster marketplace is a fundamental technological solution, implying the need to create a completely new type of control mechanism. And cryptotechnologies alone cannot be dispensed with.


    Isaac Asimov

    But where is Isaac Asimov?


    Well, firstly, he is one of our favorite science fiction writers.

    And secondly, when we sat down to write down the principles by which a truly decentralized distributed business management system should operate, it quickly became clear that we were writing our own laws of robotics. Only in our case, I want to believe, is there not only every chance of surviving to applying the theory in reality, but directly contributing to this.

    By the way, Isaac was an absolute determinist, if you remember his “Founding” cycle: that’s something, and he would definitely have approved the idea of ​​a self-governing system without outside interference.

    Start digging


    Automation and decentralization of the business management process can be implemented at various levels: from superficial to deep, creating a fundamentally new form of company management.

    The simplest thing you can imagine is managing a company on the principle of a joint-stock company, where the shareholders - manufacturers represented on the marketplace - once a year choose the company’s management, and it already manages it as a regular business, for salaries and bonuses. In this case, the blockchain plays the role of protection against corporate fraud with voting.

    At the next level of immersion in business architecture, blockchain can provide a reliable infrastructure for reporting. According to the latest EU directives, records on the blockchain can be accepted by inspection bodies as valid official documents. Moreover, they should be enough for company shareholders who want to be sure of the reliability of the data presented in the reporting by the management.

    If the two items listed above are not new to one degree or another, then no business in the world has been managing the company's budgeting or distributing funds directly through the blockchain. Blockchain is even needed here not so much as a transaction mechanism (a legal business will still not be able to fully function at the expense of cryptocurrency anyway), but as a mechanism for transferring and recording orders to a regular bank. Orders in the form of smart contracts allow you to further automate, speed up the process on the one hand, and guarantee a new level of reliability - on the other.
    The fourth, deep, like a limb in the movie "Beginning", the level is direct control through the blockchain. The management of the marketplace in this case comes down to a kind of secretariat / think tank that accompanies the process of processing proposals. And proposals are accepted, becoming decisions, or not accepted and remain forever in this limb by direct blockchain voting. This level is the most interesting, therefore, we will consider some of its principles in more detail.

    How are decisions made?


    The solution is the main building material of any process, any business, any system, any business. In fact, any organizational structure consists of one decision.

    Moreover, a decision in the sense of “order”, “decree”, “order” is just one of the stages of the process, which in fact does not begin at all with the adoption of a decision.

    Stage of solution:

    1. Definition of a problem. The solution is the answer, but the answer needs a question. And the question - the reasons to ask him. Solving a nonexistent problem is like multiplying by zero. Nevertheless, in all types of human activity there are always amateurs and even professionals parasitizing on the gaps of communication, creating the appearance of violent activity where there is nothing to do. Any participant in the decentralized management system or even an outsider can pose a problem if one of the participants approves the incoming message.
    2. Validation problems. In any system of direct democracy, there will be a certain percentage of “uncertain” requests: “Walking along the office corridor, I saw that the walls were painted in two different colors. Is this a bug or a feature? ” Automation of the control process narrows the space for such "creativity", because the machine needs an algorithm. And the algorithm requires a clear view of the problem, including criteria for its presence and an assessment of the factors of the resulting risks. If this is not done by the person who identified the problem, it falls on the shoulders of the community. Of course, many thousands of participants do not need to check together a "box of complaints and suggestions." The system can randomly distribute it in some part - for example, 1% of the participants, who in each case are a validation commission that decides whether or not to give a move to the problem. Thus,
    3. Formation of a request. Well, there is a problem: the validation commission has confirmed that you didn’t imagine. You analyzed it, evaluated the risks. It’s time to decide what’s next: what should we do with this problem and why? In theory, a wish is formed already at the stage of setting goals. But this is not necessary - because it is a separate stage in the decision-making process, which means that in a decentralized system, it also inevitably goes through a collegial process. The problem is already in the public domain, when any participant in the mechanism can:

      - clarify the problem (which department should solve it);
      - offer the desired level result: “And let's repaint! And let's move! And let's demand a lower rent! ”

      In the latter case, the quorum necessary for making a decision may already be more significant: up to 5% of the participants in the system, depending on which departments were proposed as responsible for the decision. For example, it is unlikely that the content department needs to accept more than 1% of the participants in the system or 2-3 votes in absolute terms to set the task for the content department to correct typos on the site page.
    4. The department assigned to this problem in most cases should have the right to accept the problem - or send it for revision in the form of approaching the desired level - for example, the second, if re-validation of the fact of the problem is required, or to step 3, if finalization of the goal setting is required by adding your comments.

      - One of the departments of the decentralized system should be the department of arbitration, which, for example, would solve situations when the appointed department infinitely kicks the problem back.
      - The functions of the arbitration should include both the possibility of forcibly assigning a problem and submitting the issue of trust to the team of a particular department to a general vote.

      Moreover, since we are talking about a distributed decentralized system, arbitration as a mechanism does not even have to have a permanent composition. The most trusted members of the system, who have noted their consent to perform their “jury functions” from time to time (and even the frequency with which they agree), can be invited to it randomly, say.
    5. Analysis of options. Any problem has at least two solutions, one of which is not to solve it. And if you decide - then the number of ways this can multiply indefinitely. When a problem is identified and a goal is identified, the designated department proceeds with an analysis of how to solve it. Say, if the problem is “buy a computer of a specific model,” the department’s responsibilities include the selection of suitable offers and, quite possibly, even the bidding process.

      Multilevel problems, such as hiring an employee, can be broken down by departments (in this case, on personnel issues, or by the department where the employee is needed) into intermediate stages with voting. For example, first determining the terms of reference. Then - coordination of payment terms with the community.
    6. Decision-making. The final element to solve the problem. A desk has been selected, an employee has been found - the community must say yes or no, hire or refuse. The final decision is distinguished from the intermediate stages of the adoption of the problem by the option “close the task”. If the voting participant in the system believes that the solution for which he votes solves the problem identified in stage 1, then he notes “close the task”. If more than 50% of those who voted in the same way as he noted the same checkbox, then, in the event of a decision being made, the problem also automatically closes.

    Sounds complicated? But this is only the main branch of the development of the situation. In fact, there can be many side-scenarios. But just so, if we decompose the situation into components, a decision by a person looks in principle. It’s just that people make their own decisions through a centralized mechanism (unless, of course, we are talking about the hero of the movie “Split”), so many of the decision-making stages go through immediately and imperceptibly.

    In a decentralized decision-making mechanism, all problems must be broken down into as simple, discrete components as possible. If the question is divided into two: paint the Kremlin green and send another 10 thousand people to camps, then it needs to be divided into two - otherwise it will not be possible to understand, no matter how much the community votes, for which option the votes were actually cast.

    Therefore, full decentralization does not imply a referendum every four, but thousands and millions of micro-votes, which make up the company's decision-making.

    However, this should not reduce the activity of system participants to an endless stream of micromanagement. There are several measures, the totality of which reduces the administrative burden on each participant in the system to the level of not only acceptable, but desired.

    • Different levels of problem solving require a different degree of involvement of participants. The smallest tasks may require the approval of any two participants. If there are, say, 10,000 participants in the system with the right to vote, then this means that each of its participants will come across no more than one five-thousandth of these minor issues.
    • Different types of problem solving do not require permanent teams. Different areas of work - the same arbitration - can be closed by a one-time selected team.
    • Tasks that can be solved by algorithms must be solved by algorithms. The principle of crushing any problem into the smallest possible steps allows you to categorize any issue very clearly. And if by 100% of the criteria it falls into the one for which there is already an approved decision protocol, then it is solved by the system automatically, without involving participants.
    • The rating, assessment and self-determination systems of the participants will make the distribution of questions for voting even more effective.
    • And the system for determining the level of desired participation in management ensures that a decentralized management mechanism will never invite a participant to vote in a decision that is not interesting to him. There should always be the possibility of determining the category or level of importance of the task for which the participant does not want to vote. And absolutely indifferent participants can completely turn off requests for voting, giving the fate of the project to the other participants.
    • Plant solve AI. Do not forget that blockchain is not the most impressive invention of the last decade. Self-learning neural networks - a breakthrough far more ambitious and significant. Should the developers of the decentralization system Hamster Marketplace have to ignore it? Of course not. Each participant in the control system will have access to a neural network, to which he will be able to delegate the solution of certain categories of issues, setting up, for example, decision making based on an analysis of his own decisions or based on an analysis of the results of general voting.

    The combination of these five factors: detailing the problems, a well-thought-out system of checks and balances, customizability of the degree of individual participation in solving problems, the irrevocability of entries in the blockchain and the use of AI - allow us to create a self-government mechanism that is as effective, democratic, unobtrusive and truly decentralized as possible. In a sense, we are talking about creating a collective mind, where each participant in the system is a neuron, and each discrete request is an electrical impulse.

    Testing, testing and testing again


    It is not so difficult to think through the principles of the decentralized control mechanism. It is difficult - to set it up, to create a system perfectly balanced on all sides, which would not have a single sticking thread - not a single chain of actions that would break off incomplete. To do this, you need:

    • build a prototype system;
    • drive through billions of combinations of possible development scenarios.

    Moreover, one neural network should generate problem scenarios, and another should help to close the detected holes and vulnerabilities. At the same time, a perfectly balanced system will be protected not only from internal failures based on the accidental or intentional exploitation of missed vulnerabilities - it should also be to some extent resistant to the outside. No algorithms may protect against nuclear war or mass executions, but at least the system should be robust enough to maintain controllability and independence in the event of local blackouts, the Internet, or attempts by hostile takeovers by other companies.

    Because at the moment when the system of decentralized management of the Hamster marketplace is fully configured, launched and the platform passes under its control, there will be no turning back. The stuffing cannot be turned back - and you won’t erase a record from the blockchain just like that.

    But then, if the project is successful, its result - a decentralized management system on the blockchain and with AI elements - will be much larger and more significant than the marketplace itself. Because there will be almost more options for applying such a mechanism than the blockchain itself - from any associations of people to the management of entire states. Science fiction writers, futurists, crypto enthusiasts and simply anarchists have always dreamed of working mechanisms of direct democracy, for example. But the similar will never be created by the state or for the state - in "stationary gangster ”there is no motivation to completely give up power.

    But from business, especially trade - such a decision may well come. And the Hamster Marketplace team has every chance of being among the first - if you support us in this.

    Market Place Crowdfunding


    • To finance the creation of a marketplace as a working business that solves the problems of small and medium-sized manufacturers of niche gadgets and electronics;
    • as well as provide the opportunity to study and test the mechanisms of decentralized self-government of the platform by the manufacturers of the goods presented on it,

    Hamster Marketplace launches crowdfunding campaign this fall.

    The sale of tokens will make it possible to finance both marketing expenses for marketplace promotion and sales promotion on it, as well as all the necessary research and development to create an autonomous and reliable mechanism for decentralized self-government.

    Tokens, in turn, will be part of the platform architecture, which can be used to pay for the use of Hamster Marketplace's own resources:

    • vendors will be able to use them to pay for internal promotion and promotion tools, saving fiat money;
    • buyers will have access to limited promotions, offers and early access to both goods and the platform itself before it goes to open beta.

    Right now, however, nothing needs to be done. Just leave your mail on the ICO Hamster Marketplace website so as not to miss the registration date for participation in the ICO. You can also subscribe to our channel in the Telegram or go to our telegram group to receive first-hand information.

    PS If you are a vendor - please participate in our small study .


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