I propose to make the following parameter change to the General court:
Parameters
hiddenVotes=true
Motivation
Commit and reveal functionality is already present in the current version of the Kleros court contract. However, for usability reasons (with a commit and reveal structure, jurors must make two actions at different times to submit their vote) it was decided to have this functionality depend on a parameter so that it can be turned on or off. Indeed, when there is the possibility for an appeal, we have reasoned that publicly visible votes (while not ideal) are not too problematic because a juror that observes how others are voting and thinks they are incorrect will still be incentivized to vote her true opinion if she expects that outcome to win an eventual appeal. Indeed, as she receives a share of lost deposits of jurors in her round if she is coherent with the ultimate ruling, having more jurors disagree with her in her round means she earns more if she is ultimately coherent.
However, in cases where there is no possibility for appeal or appeal is very unlikely, the lack of commit and reveal is more problematic. The General court is the highest appeal court in Kleros, so it is in this court that one will tend to find such cases. (Though even in the General court, depending on the arbitrable contract, it is often possible to appeal a case so that a larger number of jurors is drawn, also in the General court.) Considering that the some of the types of miscellaneous, low-value cases that were previously present in the General court are now in other courts, such as the Onboarding court, and that the General court now seems to be mostly used for less frequent, larger disputes, the advantages of activating commit and reveal in the General court now seem to outweigh the usability issues.