Visible Money – Rough System Description

Slovak version

The purpose of this article is to outline the features of the first version of the Visible Money system. The system’s goal is to provide a tool to enhance transparency among politicians and public figures regarding their assets. The system allows users to create an account on a web application where they can store information about their assets and liabilities. This data can then be audited under certain conditions by the public. The system relies on the idea that any inaccuracies, omissions, or outright falsehoods in asset disclosures will be quickly exposed once the data is made available for public scrutiny. The system aims to create a positive community of fully transparent individuals and establish a brand that guarantees responsible financial behavior towards one’s surroundings.

The article is divided into five chapters, providing a rough description of the system’s functionality in its various components.

Registration

Registration involves a multi-tab form that allows users to enter basic information about themselves in a few steps. The system includes standard validation mechanisms. Screenshots from user registration:

My data

After logging into the system, the user lands on the following page:

The page, and indeed all other system pages, can be typically divided into three parts: the top menu with the basic submenu of system pages, the left menu, and the actual content of the page.

On the left is the submenu of the current menu. The “My Data” menu item includes three subpages: Dashboard, My Info, and Change Password.

Dashboard – The user’s private dashboard

Dashboard includes four sections:
1. Basic information about the current user and their status in the system.
2. Private notifications that guide the user to actions in the system.
3. Public notifications from the system (visible to all users).
4. Comments from other users about the current user.

My Info – This section allows the user to modify their personal information.

Assets

The Assets menu in the application is where users can input information about their assets and liabilities. Clicking on the menu item displays the following page:

The main Assets menu has 5 sub-items in the left panel:

1. Asset profiles
2. List of assets
3. Assets overview
4. Assets growth
5. Publish to blockchain

1. Asset Profiles – Asset records are grouped into so-called asset profiles for the purpose of their evaluation. Each asset record belongs to exactly one asset profile. All asset screens have the option in their settings to select which asset profile they should be based on.
   The asset profile screen looks like this:

2. List of assets – This key page provides an overview of asset data. Users can view, add, and modify asset records here.

Adding a new asset record looks like this:

• 3. Assets overview – This section includes a pie chart displaying the user’s assets and liabilities. Individual items on the chart can be clicked to explore deeper levels of the user’s assets.
• 4. Assets growth – This column chart visualizes the user’s asset growth over time.

The green column represents the user’s assets, while the purple column represents liabilities. The yellow line indicates the difference between these two numbers. (The graph does not reflect the real situation, as it shows zero assets and 89,000 liabilities in the year 2000, which is not typical for anyone’s financial situation at the beginning of their economic life.)

The graph can be clicked again to display a list of assets at a specific time or an overview of assets at a specific time

• 5. Publish to blockchain – In this section, users can publish their asset data to the blockchain component of the system. After publishing, other system users can view the asset data in the Audit module.

Audits and Transparency

In the screens located under the Audits and Transparency menu, users can configure audit privileges for their data and search for audit requests. This includes requests for audits of their own data and requests they’ve made for other users’ data.

The screen looks like this:

Transparency settings – Allows users to modify their transparency level (no transparency, third-party transparency via a public auditor, transparency on request, and full transparency). Users can also set their “PUBLIC ROLE” as a standard citizen, government official, politician, or someone in a specific role related to the Visible Money project.

Audit permissions – Users can view a list of permissions and individuals to whom these permissions have been granted. These permissions relate to the ability to conduct audits of a specific user’s data.

Request for MAudits – Lists requests for audits of the user’s data (MAudits – Myself Audits), including requests that were accepted, denied, or have expired.

MAudits – Lists self-audits conducted on the user’s own data.

Request for Audits – Lists requests made by the user for audits of other users’ data, including accepted, denied, or expired requests.

Audits – Lists audits conducted by the user on other individuals’ data.

Blockchain

This section of the application contains screens through which users can verify that data sent to a third-party blockchain system (such as Amazon Quantum Ledger) matches the data stored in the system.

People in the System and Audit Module

The “People involved” module serves as the gateway to the audit module of the system. Clicking on it displays a list of people in the system who have passed validation processes, and their asset data is available as the basis for the audit module. The screen looks like this:

The table includes basic identification details of the person, their age, city of residence, gender, state, the level of set transparency, positive score points, negative score points, the total score, and a button labeled ‘PUBLIC WALL’ that allows access to the individual’s public noticeboard.

The noticeboard screen looks like this:

The screen consists of three important sections: a green ‘Request for audit’ button, ‘Public notifications’ generated by the system for that person, and ‘Comments of other users’.

Upon pressing the ‘Request for audit’ button, the system checks whether the logged-in user has auditing rights for that person. If yes, the system displays the following message along with a button to access the audit module of that user.

If the user does not have auditing rights, the system notifies them and generates a private notification to the audited person or their public auditor. Subsequently, the audited person can either approve or decline the audit request. The public auditor, as specified in the request description, can then conduct the audit, and the results are communicated to the requesting user.

Upon pressing the ‘REALIZE AUDIT NOW’ button, the user enters the system’s audit module, which is used to audit the data of the user for whom the audit was requested.

The audit module appears as follows:

The left menu includes the following items:

1. Audit wall – The audit wall displays comments/posts created by all users who have audited this particular user, whose audit wall is currently being viewed.
2. Private screenshots – Private screenshots are screenshots of screens taken during the audit. They are used to highlight or request explanations for data found during the audit.
3. Assets profiles – These screens, similar to those in the Assets module, are used for auditing the data of the user being audited. In the screen, you can also take a screenshot of the data, add your description to it, and then place such a post on the audit wall.
4. List of assets – These screens, similar to those in the Assets module, are used for auditing the data of the user being audited. In the screen, you can also take a screenshot of the data, add your description to it, and then place such a post on the audit wall.
5. Assets overview – These screens, similar to those in the Assets module, are used for auditing the data of the user being audited. In the screen, you can also take a screenshot of the data, add your description to it, and then place such a post on the audit wall.
6. Assets growth – These screens, similar to those in the Assets module, are used for auditing the data of the user being audited. In the screen, you can also take a screenshot of the data, add your description to it, and then place such a post on the audit wall.
7. Resolve audit – This screen is used to conclude an audit.

Taking screenshots helps emphasize or request explanations for data during an audit. Screenshots can be taken using the brush icon located in the upper right corner of the screen:

After clicking the icon, the following screen appears:

You can enter questions, highlight a number, or indicate any discrepancies in the screen:

After completing the screenshot edits, you can save it to Private Audit Screenshots using the checkmark icon in the upper right.

Subsequently, you need to place the private screenshot on the audit noticeboard so that other users who will audit this person can see it.

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