The PByT FAQs

Helping Shape the Future through Open Democracy & the Global Social Capital Fund

Open Democracy

Project Open Democracy is a new blueprint for global renewal. It is a people-first response to the civilizational collapse caused by neoliberalism, postmodernism, and the failure of outdated political systems.

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Open democracy gives people a greater say in government decisions, not just through the occasional plebiscite or referendum, but on an ongoing, issue-by-issue basis and, where applicable, on a global scale.

Unlike direct democracy, open democracy is not binding on political leaders, it provides a way for constituents to play a greater role in the political process and political decision-making.

Under the current representative democracies (including constitutional republics), citizens occasionally get a say in government decisions through referendums and plebiscites. But these are cumbersome, expensive and, often, untrustworthy because the framing of the questions.

We now have the tools to modernize this process, making it reliable, efficient, and cost-effective, with no taxpayer expense.

Politicians can directly consult the public on major issues and receive immediate, verifiable, and actionable responses.

Citizens can initiate their own referendums to address specific issues, particularly where governments are failing.

This approach disrupts the traditional dominance of the two-party system and enhances representative democracy.

Open democracy is not a political party or lobby group; it is a platform, similar to Uber or Airbnb. These platforms connect people to create new services.

PByT (Powered By Trust) connects people to evolve representative democracy, offering a new option.

People don’t vote directly for open democracy—they vote for candidates who support it, regardless of their political affiliation or independent status.

The key criterion is whether a candidate endorses open democracy, effectively redefining the outdated assumptions of representative democracy.

Representative democracy, unchanged since its 18th-century inception, assumes that elected officials will:

  • Truly represent the public’s views,
  • Voice their concerns, and
  • Vote to protect and defend their interests.

This assumption often fails due to:

  • Undue influence from lobby groups, wealthy individuals, and corporations,
  • The spread of disinformation and propaganda, and
  • Elected officials prioritizing personal, political, or external agendas over their constituents.

These issues erode trust in the political process and the concept of representative democracy itself.

Open democracy restores trust by introducing accountability on an issue-by-issue basis. Under this model, elected officials must consult their constituents on all major issues before casting their votes.

This redefines representative democracy as follows:

Elected officials are not only trusted to represent public views, voice concerns, and protect interests but are also held accountable to the electorate through open democracy on an issue-by-issue basis.

Global Social Capital Fund

The business community has long recognized its social obligations extend beyond just generating profits and have adopted ideas like ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) also known as 'stakeholder capitalism'.

ESG has either failed or has had limited success in tackling social issues like inequality, poverty and disadvantage and has been criticized as nothing more than a coat of green paint over business-as-usual.

The Global Social Capital Fund (GSCF) represents the evolution of ESG into something more practical and readily applicable.

It expands the obligation of the business sector beyond delivering profits to include the building, maintaining and preserving of social capital. This begins with providing funding to the non-profit sector, which is the engine room of global social capital.

The GSCF represents a rebalancing of the global economy following the economic experiment of deregulation and privatization, which created new efficiencies but also exacerbated inequality, poverty and disadvantage through the failed idea of trickle-down economics.

Funding for the Global Social Capital Fund comes from a social responsibility levy of 1% - 2.5% of revenue built into the PByT subscription fee for corporations and other for-profit groups and businesses.

The GSCF, by putting a value on social responsibility as a percentage of revenue, will provide the financial basis for tackling some of the world's most intractable problems, triggering systemic change through a range of social, political and economic resets.

The simple answer is because it's a market economy and people will be encouraged to look for the symbol of trust and social responsibility before using, buying, selling, investing or voting.

If enough people start to use the PByT service in making their purchase decisions then market forces will ensure that every business, large and small, will subscribe or risk going out of business.

Additionally, governments will be encouraged to support the GSCF by providing tax incentives to socially responsible business operators in recognition of the importance of the GSCF in not just funding the non-profit sector, but also as the basis for social cohesion on a global scale.

The business community spends anywhere between 5%-15% of revenue on advertising, promotion and customer retention, so 1% - 2.5% is not out of the question in supporting and maintaining the social fabric through the concept of the Global Social Capital Fund.

Importantly, this fund will create a new flow of capital beyond government handouts, private capital and the credit market ensuring that the global economy does falter, stall or, worse still, collapse during times of social, political or environmental stress,  health crises and technological disruption. This provides an existential reason for the business community to support this initiative by participating.

Further, we expect that national governments will begin to see the benefits of encouraging business social responsibility by reducing taxes for the socially responsible business operators and imposing higher taxes on those that are not.

The global economy is well on its way to reaching US$100 trillion in revenue per year. This means that about $1 - $2 trillion will flow automatically to build, maintain and preserve social capital through the Global Social Capital Fund.

The process will finally put to rest the failed idea of trickle-down economic theory replacing it with the idea of benefits trickling up, in recognition of the simple fact that human society like the proverbial chain is only as strong as its weakest link.

The PByT Business and Group Member subscription fee includes a Social Capital Levy, which provides funding for the Global Social Capital Fund.

100% of the fund will be distributed back into to the community through the PByT Partner Program (Partner Program). 80% will be distributed on a nation-by-nation basis, depending on the level of contribution. 20% will be allocated to global programs and humanitarian aid.

The Partner Program includes non-profit groups and organizations that join PByT and are accepted into the program.

The GSC Fund distribution is based on the following simple formula on a nation-by-nation basis.

  • The subscription unit price is calculated based on the GSC Fund value divided by total number of Subscriber Points.
  • For each member of the Partner Program, the total number of Subscriber Points is multiplied by the subscription unit price to arrive at the raw revenue amount.
  • The raw revenue amount is adjusted up or down, depending on the reputation of the partners to arrive at the final amount. This rewards the best performing partners and encourages underperforming partners to do better.

GSC Fund distributions are made annually to Program Partners that have at least 100 PByT subscribers, have been members for at least 6 months and have a positive PByT reputation rating.

Members of the Partner Program are encouraged to invite subscribers to their service in their profile in recognition of their value. These subscriptions will be used in calculating the GSC Fund distributions.

The Social Capital Levy can increase in two key ways.

Firstly, by general agreement of all PByT members through the PByT feedback mechanism.

Secondly, the levy can increase for individual for-profit organizations that fail to uphold their obligations under the Reciprocal Terms & Conditions.

Every organisation already operates under Terms and Conditions. Before using a website, opening a bank account or purchasing a service, customers are routinely asked to accept the organisation's rules.

PByT introduces the complementary idea of Reciprocal Terms and Conditions.

Rather than relying solely on legislation and regulation to define acceptable behaviour, organisations voluntarily agree to operate consistently with the shared human values expressed in the Freedom Declaration for Peace. In effect, the Declaration becomes society's Reciprocal Terms and Conditions, providing a common ethical framework that complements, rather than replaces, existing laws.

The incentive to participate is primarily positive. Organisations that publicly adopt these principles demonstrate that they are committed not only to commercial success, but also to the broader well-being of the communities they serve. In time, this commitment becomes a recognised mark of trust, helping customers, employees, investors and the wider community identify organisations that voluntarily accept higher standards of accountability.

Organizations will be encouraged to comply because it reflects on their trustworthiness and social responsibility.

PByT combines Reciprocal Terms and Conditions with ongoing public feedback, allowing trust to be measured over time rather than assumed.

This has a direct commercial impact in two ways.

Firstly, perceptions of trustworthiness will directly impact on brand image, competitiveness and investor confidence.

Secondly, the level of the social capital levy will depend on the trustworthiness of the organization, based on member feedback.

Trustworthy organisations contribute just the standard social capital levy, as part of their membership.

Those that repeatedly undermine trust will be required to contribute a higher percentage as a deterrent to poor behaviour.

The higher contribution will persist until their trustworthiness reputation is restored, as measured by member feedback.

The same member feedback will ensure that organizations that pay a penalty for undermining trust, cannot simply increase their prices in response. Rising prices would impact negatively on their trust rating and require a continuance of the higher social capital levy.

The idea of Reciprocal Terms & Conditions provides a more effective way to encourage good behaviour and discourage poor behaviour than regulation and legislation, which will always be a step behind.

We now have the technology and the concept to strengthen democracy by giving people a greater say in how they are governed not just at election time but on an ongoing, issue-by-issue basis and on a global scale, resulting in the concept of open democracy.

In an open democracy, individual action through feedback rather than the political process will be the dominant driver of change and decision-making.

Open democracy coupled with the GSCF has the potential to trigger a paradigm shift in global relations.

PByT provides the mechanism for democratizing economic power by expanding the idea of business social responsibility to include the building, maintaining and preserving social capital through a social capital levy built into the PByT subscription fee.

The distribution of potentially trillions of dollars will provide the global community with a new lever in dealing with rogue nations that can:

  • Temper the behavior of belligerent national leaders.
  • Prevent endemic corruption, state oppression and human rights abuse.
  • Resolve trade and other disputes far more effectively than sanctions, embargoes and UN resolutions.

Access to the Fund

Access to this fund will be reserved for nations that are both open democracies and ratified signatories to the International Criminal Court (ICC).

More than 120 countries are ICC members, but notable absentees include the United States, China, India, Russia, and Israel. The ICC is the world’s highest criminal court, prosecuting warlords and heads of state alike.

This framework puts individuals in non-signatory nations on notice: their actions and decisions could still be subject to ICC trial.

In essence, this represents a paradigm shift in global relations—one that promotes peaceful coexistence, strengthens economic stability, and fosters greater prosperity and security for all, anchored in a shared vision for the future.