Ever since the emergence of Bitcoin in 2009, there has been great attention to the blockchain technology. The highly specialized blockchain industry began witnessing influx of investors and users. Everyone wanted to pitch their tent on the biggest thing in the technological world. While others had funny feelings about its emergence, many believed in it and have reaped huge reward from its numerous blessings.

The Blockchain technology in all its amazing features is completely not resistant to bad actors as it is subject to adoption by the good, bad and ugly. Since the blockchain offers an opportunity to diversify and create value, people, companies engage in different businesses on the blockchain.

Many collaborations exists, in the sense that jobs could be done for one another, products sold, funds transferred and business partnerships happening. Some of these opportunities on the blockchain have resulted to disputes and disagreements. These disagreements are a notable feature of the blockchain industry, and are functions of human and individual difference.

However, peace cannot exist in complete absence of dispute, the truth of the issue is that dispute is expected to abound.
Dispute arises due to differences in perception,reasoning and approach to issues. it is an inherent property seen in humans. One who hopes for no dispute has no good understanding of life. Dispute is generally evident in many aspects of life. A clear study would expose you to the diversity it has in many areas of life. No area of life is devoid of dispute, humans have shown they are different in the way they disagree in issues.

The business world has in recent years shown to have the highest level of dispute. Small and large companies have dispute ranging from investment, fund handling, insurance, jobs offered, and jobs done.

Users of decentralized eBay will claim that sellers failed to send the goods as specified in the agreement, guests in decentralized Airbnb will claim that the rented house was not “as shown in the pictures” and backers in a crowdfunding platform will claim a refund as teams fail to deliver the promised results

A common ground should exist to handle these issues. Many known methods of dispute exists ranging from mediators, court, third party arbitrators etc. The most common form of dispute resolution is litigation. It involves filing of a suit against another. Usually the government facilitates this process at the federal, state or municipal courts.

Clear dissatisfaction have been the order of the day as the parties have always appealed the judgment of these bodies. No effectiveness is seen or witnessed, this method has created problems when it is supposed to manage them.
The verdict of the court is usually filled with numerous shortcomings. Hence, the reason for dissatisfaction.
Ineffective handling of dispute results in Dissatisfaction/frustration, envy, resentment, chaos, less trust in the system

SOME OF THE PROBLEMS ASSOCIATED WITH CENTRALIZED METHOD OF DISPUTE RESOLUTION

CORRUPTION AND BIAS JUDGEMENT

Perversion has become the order of the day in many litigation cases. Judges now collect and accept bribes from the defendant or complainant, this result in unjust and bias dispensation of justice, justice is no longer served and this is a big problem seen in dispute resolutions
Individuals who do not have people in power or poor are at the mercy of the rich who manipulate cases in their favour,

DELAYED JUSTICE

Some court cases stay longer than necessary and frustrate parties involved. The longer than necessary stay seen in litigation cases can either be attributed to manipulation thoughts or inexperience
It could be a lawyer buying time for his clients especially when they have no claim to the situation. This is so unethical.

HIGHLY EXPENSIVE

Some individuals spend more than they have in court cases. In cases, where judgment is delayed more than necessary, the cost of paying lawyers, showing up in courts and gathering of evidence is just so much
A friend of mine had a case worth $800 in court, he spent more than the fee while pursuing the case, it could be annoying seeing these flaws in centralized dispute management system.
Does one have to spend all he has to resolve a dispute? I think no.

SECURITY OF LIVES

I lost a relation to a trade dispute case one time ago; the death came due to the frequent visit to law courts and exposure to the world at large. He was accused wrongly of a stealing in a trade investment company, due to the nature of the robbery, many enemies were formed and his live became a target for many people.
The centralized system does not provide security to different parties involved in a case and this could risk the lives of both parties.

There is need for a decentralized means of dispute management, one that would effectively manage disputes and restore trust. Since trades, funds transactions and contracts have increased in the online market, resolving rift and dispute is important in order to move forward.

A platform that solves these problems and many more exists, I introduce Kleros

Kleros is a decentralized blockchain technology that acts like a court. It is a dispute resolution platform that solves every kind of dispute that may arise during any transaction or contract. Kleros acts like a third party or intermediary between two parties in dispute or conflict in respect to breach of contract or suspected fraud.

Kleros arbitrates disputes of every kind in a contract, whether it is very complex or simple. The technicality of securing evidence, selecting jurors is fully automated. Technically, Kleros is characteristically unbiased in its judgement as it connects the affected parties to experts in the field the conflict emanated from. Because it is unbiased in its judgement, it does not solely rely on individual honesty, but on a game thereotical economic incentive.

In disputes involving trade funds, funds are withheld until jurors arrive at a final decision. Comparing the exorbitant prices, delayed transactions and biased features of centralized methods of dispute resolution, kleros offers judgements in a fast, efficient, decentralized, inexpensive and reliable way

CORE INDEX OF HOW KLEROS WORKS

CONTRACT CREATION

Users who are dissatisfied in a contract case create create a smart contract and select Kleros as its adjudication protocol. They are regarded as contract creators

DISPUTE

After the selection of Kleros as its adjudication protocol, the releveant information needed in the settling of the dispute is sent to Kleros for processing, handling and ultimate settling of case

SELECTION

A selection occurs after the evidence and information of the dispute has been received. contract creators select the jurors they want. Jurors serve the right of evaluating evidences. Being a juror is not self-imposed, it is by virtue of number of tokens deposited, and this serves as a means of eliminating inactive participants

ENFORCEMENT

The smart contract is an already automated system and by this means, decision is enforced and communicated to affected participants

PROJECT DESCRIPTION AND WORKING OUTLINE OF THE KLEROS PLATFORM

ARBITRATED CONTRACTS

As an opt-in court system, the participants in the smart contract system (contract creators) must design a Kleros as their Arbitrator. Since they are the contract creators, they choose how many jurors they want in the handling of the case and the particular court that will settle the dispute. The exists numerous courts from which the contract creators can select from and selection is pre-dominantly based on type of dispute, one cannot select a court for transportation dispute why they have an e-commerce dispute

Selecting a court is therefore dispute specific, this was built so as to provide the best judgment of cases as individuals involved are highly built in knowledge and dexterity

[List of multiple courts in the Kleros platform]

• OPTIONS FOR JURORS

The contract creators serve the right of specifying the options they want jurors to vote. These options are like agtrmath actions to be taken when the dispute is eventually resolved. Also, specification is also made on the behavior of the contract after ruling must have been done. Some of the examples clearly express actions to be taken, they are code words, some of them include “ Reimburse funds“, “Give more time“ and a whole lot of others.

• PRIVACY
  When the issue gets a bit complicated, classified information and evidence may be required. In such cases, the natural language and labels of jurors are kept private and are not displayed on the blockchain. An asymmetric encryption system is used while submitting details of the dispute and only the selected jurors gets to have access to these details
  

DRAWING OF JURORS AND SELECTION OF JURORS

Even though a random process is followed in final juror selection, a process is needed to draw random numbers resistant to manipulation. Many malicious acts might arise where a juror might create a dispute, selects himself multiple times as a juror and another vivtim. To ensure this is avoided random numbers will be genertad using the Proof orf work (PoW) which follows the following ways:

• Initialization
• Computing the master random value
• Getting the results on the blockchain
• Getting all random values

The drawing of a juror is dependent on the amount of tokens deposited by a juror, like I mentioned earlier, it eliminates the probabibility of selecting inactive users.

The token used in this system is the PINAKOIN token and has two important roles: Protection from attacks, if drawing was randomly done and pinakoin token is not used, malicious users could take advantage of the drawing process and
The pinakoin token ensures honesty, if a juror is found guilty, they pay part of their tokens as punishments the just ones. No one would want to loose their tokens. Hence, honesty is maintained

If a candidate meets the requirements of self-selecting specific courts and token deposit, the final selection is randomly done where chances are higher for candidates who deposited more tokens
It is usually unlikely for a candidate to be drawn twice but the amount of time a user is being drawn for a dispute determines the number of votes he will get in the dispute and eventually the amount of tokens he will win or
loseSource: Whitepaper

VOTES

The evidence presented is assessed by the jurors and the votey accordingly. The voting system is built in such a way that a juror is afforded just one vote, they cannot change their vote. The jurors submit hash (vote, salt, address,) and the address is usually the ethereum of the juror. Also, no juror sees the vote of the other, this prevents influence of votes.
The jurors reveal their vote and this is verified by the smart contract to check if it matches their earlier commitment.
If a juror wants to reveal its vote to another party, it has two options:

1. Reveal only its vote. The party won’t have any proof that it effectively voted that way. The juror could lie about it and the other party has no way to verify.
2. Reveal its vote and its commitment. The party would have the proof of its vote, but the party would also be able to steal the pinakoins of this juror.

After the votes have been collated, they are aggregated and the option with the highest vote emerges the winner

ARBITRATION FEES

An arbitration fee is usually being paid to the jurors as a form of reward for a job well done. The arbitration fee prevents further disputes and spamming of the Kleros platform.
The arbitrate smart contract determines who pays the arbitration fee. Two instances exist for the payment

• Each party deposits equal amount, if any party fails to deposit, the smart contract considers the other person the winner. But if both parties deposits, then the winning party is reimbursed
• In appeals, both parties have to deposit the arbitration fees. The appellant also has to deposit an extra stake proportional to the appeal fees which will be given to the party winning the dispute. This way if a party makes frivolous appeals to harm the opposing party, the opposing party will get a compensation for the time loss, while if the appeals are finally ruled to be legit, the stake will be returned to the appellant Source
  

APPEALS

If any of the parties feel dissatisfied, they could appeal the dispute, which means it will be ruled again. If an appeal is made, more jurors are involved and more appeal fee will be paid. The jurors usually are twice the initial amount plus one extra.
Appeal fees= [(new number of jurors x fee per juror )− (fee already paid)]

INCENTIVE SYSTEM

Arbitration fees are paid to compensate jurors for their amazing work, even though the amount is low, it is more like a reward gesture. Honesty is enforced by Kleros through the penalty seen in incoherent votes, with this jurors are compelled to be just in their votes

After Kleros has reached a decision on the dispute, tokens are unfrozen and redistributed among jurors. The redistribution mechanism is inspired by the SchellingCoin9 , where jurors gain or lose tokens depending on whether their vote was consistent with the others jurors.

GOVERNANCE MECHANISM

Government policies are means of further diversyfing of the courts, Such decisions will be made by token holders using a liquid voting mechanism.

Token holders will have an amount of votes equal to the amount of pinakions they hold. They will have the option of voting directly or delegating their vote. When a user fails to vote, his voting power is automatically transferred to his delegate.

The government mechanism can be used for:
Setting policies, Modifying the subcourts, Modifying parameters in the subcourts, Changing one of the smart contracts Kleros rely on

Source: Whitepaper

ADVANTAGES OF KLEROS

• Higly secured
• Reduced bribery and increased transparency in dispute resolution
• Selection of users are based on specialization
• Privacy is assured
• Rewards for jurors
• Just and honesty is assured since penalty is melted out to incoherent jurors
• Appeals are allowed in cases of dissatisfaction
• Reduced cost
• Dispute is settled very fast
  

APPLICATIONS OF KLEROS

• Escrow
• Curated Lists
• Crowd funding
• Gaming
• Micro Tasking
• Social Networks
• Arbitration
• E-commerce
• Insurance
• Social media

USE CASE 1

Mr Amanze is a successful business man that specializes in automobiles, he has always had the intention of improving his brand online. He gets on the blockchain and contracts a website developer by name Mr Tunzii. After a description and clear outline of what is needed, Mr tunzii develops the site. But Mr Amanze was annoyed because he felt Mr Tunzii did not capture some things in the contract description.
Whereas Mr tunzii denied all shortcomings, the dispute escalated and needed an effective resolve.
The both parties decides to involve the Kleros court for the issue to be resolved, The jurors who are highly skilled web site developers reviews the website and the contract description. After voting must have been done by the jurors, it was discovered that Mr Amanze appealed wrongly, he forfeits his appeal fee and pays incurred expenses to Mr Tunzii for the stress and time wasted

USE CASE 2

Mr Henry is a contractor with a big multi-national company, he specializes in construction of roads, building s and structures in general. He gets a huge contract of $1500 for a road construction
The contract description stipulated that he completes the work before payment. Mr Henry spent all he had while constructing the road. After months of labour, he meets with the people that offered the contract.
They denied ever promising him $1500, saying the amount was too much for a road construction. Mr Henry takes them to the Kleros court and after series of analyses by jurors, Mr Henry won and got his money back.

TOKEN

The token used in this system is the PINAKOIN token and has two important roles:

• Protection from attacks, if drawing was randomly done and pinakoin token is not used, malicious users could take advantage of the drawing process

• The pinakoin token ensures honesty, if a juror is found guilty, they pay part of their tokens as punishments the just ones. No one would want to loose their tokens. Hence, honesty is maintained
  

CONCLUSION

The blockchain has shown its diversity in virtually every part of human existence, it is amazing seeing a blockchain court that meets the needs of the people.
Centralized system of dispute resolution has failed in many ways, from the exorbitant prices, biased judgment and delayed judgment, one can finnaly actually have some level of trust on the court system
Small business would benefit from this, since they now have a platform that can handle any dispute that may arise in their small transaction cases. Large businesses are not left out as every area, size of group is capturd effectively
Contract bridging will be a thing of the past as people will have no fear signing contracts with individuals
Indeed, the Kleros platform is an ideal life changer!

VIDEO BY ME