Social Income, like any UBI project, has limited financial resources. Choosing who gets help and who + doesn't is tough. We want everyone to understand how we select our recipients. Since November 2023, + we’ve employed a new way to randomly select people from poor communities, thanks to our partnership + with drand.
+We team up with a variety of international and local NGOs who support marginalized communities and are + familiar with poverty at the local level. After visiting and positively assessing these NGOs – as well + as the areas and communities they support – we may request that they provide us with a list of all + potential recipients.
+Potential recipients are people living in poverty with whom they maintain direct + contact. Depending on the communities supported, those lists can include anything from 100 to 1000 + names.
+ +The lists we are + working with during selection contain minimal information about potential recipients. They are + subsequently + anonymized (hashed) and uploaded to our open-source + repository. With the help of a random number generated and published by drand, a mechanism is set in place to select a predetermined + number of individuals from the list. This process can be mathematically traced back and verified without + compromising recipients’ data.
++ 🔎 Upcoming: allowing everyone to easily verify for themselves whether or not they're on one + of the NGOs' lists or whether they have been chosen. +
+After a draw, we reach out to both the NGO and the community directly to share the results. The + beneficiaries who were selected – upon confirming their participation – then provide additional + information and are onboarded for our 3-year program
+The purpose of employing this random selection method is to achieve several objectives. Firstly, it helps + prevent bias in our recipient selection, ensuring that relatives or acquaintances of individuals + involved in the process are not given preferential treatment. Secondly, it aims to avoid tensions + between recipients and non-recipients, as well as any potential conflicts between recipients and our + organization. Lastly, we strive to incorporate technology where it is feasible and beneficial to the + process.
+ +By relying on an unpredictable random value from drand, set to be emitted in the future, it's not + possible for anyone to sway the results of the selection process. This inherent randomness can be + utilized to confirm the integrity of the selection. To qualify for Social Income, an individual must + first be on a list provided by an NGO. While this does present a preliminary condition, it aligns with + our foundational principle: ensuring that Social Income reaches those most in need.
+ +To ensure we don't inadvertently prioritize a specific ethnic group, gender, or occupation, we + collaborate with diverse NGOs that have varied missions. In line with our 'do no harm' policy, + we strive to prevent tensions among recipients, non-recipients, communities, and the NGOs. Our random + selection plays a pivotal role in achieving this. It ensures that those related to or acquainted with + individuals in the process aren't shown favoritism, which could lead to conflicts.
+ +We utilize the random number provided by drand, which is publicly accessible, to pick a set number of + individuals from our list. Here's how it's done: we first organize the hashed list of + recipients. Then, using the randomness element from drand, we convert it into a position on the list + through a key derivation function. + For those keen on the technical details, the function and its associated processes are documented in + our Github repository.
+ +The drand project generates random numbers that everyone can trust. It can be applied to create truly + random and verifiable drafts. Initiated in 2017 at EPFL by Nicolas Gailly, drand received support from + Philipp Jovanovic and was guided by Bryan Ford. It has since become independently managed and maintains + a network called the League of Entropy with + EPFL, UCL, Cloudflare, Kudelski Security, the University of Chile, and Protocol Labs. Current core + maintainers of the open source project are the CEO, CSO and CTO of Randamu, respectively Erick Watson, Yolan Romailler, and Patrick McClurg.
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