Dr. Ju-Chun Ko, Legislator At-Large of Taiwan Parliament, Vice Co-chair of Legislative-yuan US-Taiwan Caucus (LUC), and Founder and Chair of Emerging Technology Exchange Association (ETEA).

Dr. Ko will present "Rebuilding Trust: From Ukraine's Web3 Manifesto to Taiwan's Digital Democracy". In this talk, Dr. Ju-Chun "JC" Ko, MP of Taiwan's Legislative Yuan, will share how Web3 can build financial and democratic resilience — from vTaiwan's participatory governance to the Digital Wallet, DID, and TaiVote projects — showing how open tech can turn trust into a foundation for democracy.

Dr. Ko brings invaluable insights on how decentralized technologies can strengthen democratic institutions and citizen participation, drawing parallels between Taiwan's and Ukraine's experiences in building digital resilience.

Quotes

On the core philosophy of rebuilding:

"Recovery is not about rebuilding what was lost, it's about building what's next."

On transparency as an anti-corruption tool:

"Use transparency to replace authority. Use consensus to replace command."

On digital resilience as national defense:

"Digital trust is the new national defense. In an era of information warfare, trust infrastructure matters more than firewalls."

On privacy and trust in democracy:

"Your data, your identity should belongs to you and you only. If you want to share, you can share. Or if you want to cancel the rights for the others to read, write or share or own your data, you should have the right to do that."

On proof of personhood vs. fake influence:

"There should be a way for us to distinguish a real human voice, a real citizen voice separate from a bots, a fake account or even from fraud groups... We don't really know who they are, but... the user from the world ID wallet... our system can know more about him or her... without any information revealed by the voters."

On anti-corruption context:

Taiwan faced "netizen armies" - coordinated fake accounts financed by fraud groups or wealthy interests - underscoring the need for proof‑of‑humanity to protect democratic integrity without sacrificing privacy. This parallels Ukraine's challenges with information warfare and the need for transparent, incorruptible digital systems for reconstruction funding and governance.

Key Ideas

• Shared Challenges: Taiwan and Ukraine both face external pressures requiring digital resilience
• Core Principle: "Use transparency to replace authority, use consensus to replace command"
• v.Taiwan Platform (2014):
• Digital platform for citizens-government collaboration on policy
• Successfully resolved Uber regulation and sharing economy laws
• Used pol.is algorithm to find consensus among diverse opinions
• Embodied decentralized governance before Web3 became mainstream
• Digital Identity Wallet:
• Open-source, Ethereum-based system
• Users control their own data with "free to opt in, free to opt out"
• Verifiable credentials without revealing all personal information
• Public-private collaboration for Web3 financial services
• Compatible with EU eID 2.0 standards for cross-border use
• TaiVote - AI Policy Voting System:
• Combines Web3 verification with proof-of-human technology (World ID)
• Anonymous voting while proving real human participation
• Used for Taiwan's AI Basic Law development
• Eliminates bots and fake accounts while preserving privacy
• Can distinguish voters by nationality without revealing identity
• Enables transparent public budget oversight and airdrops
• Policy Implications:
• First-ever AI Basic Law incorporating Web3 civic trust mechanisms
• Moving from open government to verifiable democracy
• Inquiry about Strategic Bitcoin Reserve for Taiwan
• Four Pillars Alignment:
• Economic recovery through digital innovation
• Digital trust through transparent systems
• Interoperable ecosystem across borders
• ESG impact through sustainable technology