Kleros - Revolutionizing Dispute Resolution or Just Another Doomed Blockchain Project?

My submission to @originalworks' contest 940 STEEM ~ Sponsored Writing Contest: Kleros

This is not just another yay-saying marketing article blindly praising Kleros. I try to be as critical, skeptical and fair as I can be. The potential clients/users of Kleros deserve that, as well as the project's developers. So here is my neutral, unbiased opinion.

What is Kleros?

Watch this short explanation video and visit Kleros Website for more information.

As there is already so much information available on Kleros, I try not to be redundant and only repeat as little as necessary to make my points.

Use case example: Web shops and p2p online market places

It is relatively easy to implement Kleros in this case. In many cases like Amazon, eBay and even smaller platforms, there already exists a centralized solution by the respective platform provider to resolve disputes. Replacing it with a decentralized solution like Kleros seems like a small step logistically. It is also potentially more fair to both disputing parties, since it is neutral. Another benefit would be the saving of personnel costs for the platform operator.

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While Kleros' use cases and vision sound good at first, I have my doubts about the actual practicality.
It heavily depends on the Ethereum. Infrastructure, exchange rate / price.
Another entry barrier can be the necessity of internet access.
Offline, off-chain individuals or companies are excluded by default. This is of course true for all blockchain-related projects by nature, I just wanted to keep that in mind.

Jurors

One of the flaws every perfectly theory-crafted system has: humans are very fallible.
I want trained professionals or experts in a relevant field to judge, rather than random, possibly uneducated and uninformed, strangers.
This won't happen, as the Whitepaper promises:

Users have an economic interest in serving as jurors in Kleros: collecting the arbitration fee that every
juror gets for his work. Candidates will self-select to serve as jurors using a token called pinakion
(PNK)
.
The probability of being drawn as a juror for a specific dispute is proportional to the amount of
tokens a juror deposits. The higher the amount of tokens it deposits, the higher the probability that
it will be drawn as juror. Jurors that do not deposit pinakions do not have the chance of being drawn.
Kleros Whitepaper, 4.2.1

While the Whitepaper makes a good case for the upsides of the token-based selection of jurors, I immediately see the downside: Rich people have more tokens and thus more chance of being drawn as a juror (This reminds me of the classical legal system, where more money can buy you a better attorney). Well, that's only true to a degree:

Most pinakion will be distributed in a token distribution
event; a lower part will be given to project contributors and to early stage supporters.
Kleros Whitepaper, pg 4 footnote ³

I admit, my initial doubts are almost cleared. Let's see how this plays out in the real world.

Legal grounds

Even if the dispute is settled via Kleros jurors, the losing party can still decide to go the old-fashioned way and sue. If there's a real judge's verdict that contradicts Kleros dispute's outcome, there's nothing Kleros can do. You have to hold up your end of the bargain by law. Jurisdiction (still) trumps blockchain.
So Kleros can serve as a dispute resolution layer before the classic court system, but not replace it. Kleros can potentially deescalate minor disputes beforehand and save everybody time, money and energy.

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Conclusion

Don't get me wrong. I really am a fan of blockchain technology. But we should not accept every technological advancement blindly. We have to be open-minded but skeptical.

I really like the whole Kleros idea, especially the immense speed advantage compared to solving disputes in court.

IMHO, the only way to find out and prove the concept works, is to implement and adapt it on a large scale.
Kleros' pilot experiment Doges on Trial is a first step into that direction, but many more have to follow.

Doges are uploaded to the website, and users can challenge whether it is indeed a Doge or not. Although this is just a fun experiment, it is a great example of a potential use-case as well.

Even if projects like Kleros won't find broad acceptance, it still can serve as a catalyser for institutions and society to evolve and improve their outdated ways of doing things. Maybe one day, Kleros will be implemented 1:1 by governments. Or maybe only some ideas will be used. Either way, progress is happening slowly but steadily.

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