A Grassroots Architecture to Supplant Global Digital Platforms by a Global Digital Democracy

TL;DR

This paper proposes a grassroots digital architecture enabling local communities to operate independently on smartphones, fostering democratic governance and federating into a global digital democracy as an alternative to centralized platforms.

Contribution

It introduces a novel grassroots architecture that supports local digital communities with sovereign governance and federation capabilities, bypassing reliance on global digital platforms.

Findings

Communities can form digital economies without external capital.

Grassroots platforms operate solely on smartphones.

Federation leads to a global digital democracy.

Abstract

We present an architectural alternative to global digital platforms termed grassroots, designed to serve the social, economic, civic, and political needs of local digital communities, as well as their federation. Grassroots platforms may offer local communities an alternative to global digital platforms while operating solely on the smartphones of their members, forsaking any global resources other than the network itself. Such communities may form digital economies without initial capital or external credit, exercise sovereign democratic governance, and federate, ultimately resulting in the grassroots formation of a global digital democracy.