The Near digital collective widely known as the NDC is the first layer one governance movement to be born. In Near protocol the NDC is a community led movement which is not limited to any but generally open to every community member whether new or OG to contribute in his or her own way towards the achievement of the set goals of the NDC. The NDC has made a groundbreaking progress as it has consistently evolved, accelerated and spread wider as it continues to set a framework which allows the community to be in charge of the Treasury of the community. Through the NDC Near Protocol has been able to operate at a human gated level through a verification process called I-AM-HUMAN. This verification process allows the community to showcase a proof of their personhood through a simple face verification. This process might sound quite weird to so many community members who prefer to communicate as anon. but the safe part of the verification is that the ecosystem chooses a safer company that doesn’t save nor share a user’s identity after verification. Upon the pertinence of Near Protocol building a having a self-governing mechanism, through the community, the NDC is building towards making this a success they further split the governance model into 3 powerful arms which includes; The House of Merit Council of Advisors Transparency commission The House of Merit: This body will be made up of 15 seats per tenure, they will be in charge of the community treasury. This entails that the house serves as the financial controlling body of the Near Protocol Ecosystem, they will control community funding, decide which proposal meets the funding criteria, and deliberate on how better to allocate the community funding. They will inspect every funding proposal coming from each Grassroots DAO and decide if it meets funding eligibility. They are in charge of all kinds of Grants coming from the community. The Council of Advisors: This body will be the overseers of the people in the House of merit, just as the name Implies they are there to play the advisory role to the House of Merit, they will be part of their decision making on fund distribution and there are just 7 open seats for this house. The Transparency Commission: They are the web 3 police of Near Protocol, they are in charge of passing laws and they remove bad actors and council members who abuse their office and equally be in charge of reinstatement if need be. And there are just 7 open seats for this position. How can we improve the process? How can we improve the election process using web 3? The web 3 is transforming the electoral process. It has brought us online voting and opened up communication between community members and aspirants. But access to voting remains unequal, since there are OGs and those who are new, the social polarization and civic disengagement are on the rise. Toxicity in digital political spaces is only growing, with racialized politicians and candidates in particular bearing the brunt of abuse. In an era when “democratic backsliding” has gathered steam around the world, and the stresses of the COVID-19 pandemic have tested democracies, what can we do to nudge, rather than force, people to the voting booth? We know times of crisis affect voter turnout. What can we do about it? How can we better foster representation and participation in our democracy? 1. Revamping voter registration. The system relied heavily on pen-and-paper forms, which lead to typos and errors in registration records. The web 3 has added more electronic options that would help get more voters on the rolls and keep them there by increasing accuracy and efficiency. For instance, the I-AM-HUMAN SBT {built on Near BOS} allows eligible community members to register and eligible for votes, and to more easily check and update their records—through a secure online portal. Since the world is moving into an era where most transactions are done online, it makes no sense that they cannot register to vote online, too, which is what web 3 elections has come to establish. 2. Undergoing a tech face-lift. Web 3 has done an upgrade in technology to help communities and DAOs register to vote, a good example is the I-AM-HUMAN SBT and the OG SBT. This has created a seamless experience for the voter, since the registration would take place as part of an underlying transaction. The face verification process is a more authentic way for human verification and voting eligibility which in turn solves the problem of the real life manual verification process. 3. Increases election integrity The web 3 is working so hard to build more efficient ways to protect election integrity, since votes are recorded as smart contracts in a node, identifying bad actors and fraudsters are quite easy. The election dashboard is displayed and the number of voters and identities are shown as the voting is ongoing. It equally makes it easy for vote counting and documentation. It’s time to modernize Modernizing the world's antiquated system would help voters and election officials alike. Hopefully, with the success of our election, real life state houses will take steps to modernize their laws to ensure voting is free, fair and widely accessible to all eligible citizens.