Blockchain elections are a fact now
Mar. 19th, 2018 06:23 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
nairiporterThe world’s first blockchain-powered elections just happened in Sierra Leone
Yes, Sierra Leone. Of all countries. The first presidential election in the world that is run through a blockchain category happened on March 7. Of course, the technology was only partially used: in the densely populated Western district. It was introduced by a Swiss foundation called Agora that provides solution for digital voting. The idea was actually simple: the same way blockchain helps provide transparency in crypto-currencies, votes could be reported in the public registers, making all data freely accessible, but only editable by authorised staff.
Negotiations with Sierra Leone had gone on for nearly a year before the election. The system was a success in the district where it was implemented, and this raises promising perspectives for spreading the technology elsewhere. If it could work in a place with bad internet connectivity, low literacy rates, and high voter suppression like Sierra Leone, it could work virtually anywhere else.
The end goal is of course to automatise the whole voting process, so that the citizens could vote digitally, from their homes, using biometric data and personalised cryptographic keys, while their votes could be validated through the blockchain platform. The project could be now expanded on larger scales, to other countries in Africa and around the world, while taking the local intricacies in consideration.
In any case, blockchain voting will be much cheaper, because no printing of voting materials will be required, no security and staff for the polling stations and ballot counting, etc. But what's more important, it will cut any possibilities for manipulation. The problem with vote buying will remain, though. Perhaps that should be the next problem that ought to be addressed.
Yes, Sierra Leone. Of all countries. The first presidential election in the world that is run through a blockchain category happened on March 7. Of course, the technology was only partially used: in the densely populated Western district. It was introduced by a Swiss foundation called Agora that provides solution for digital voting. The idea was actually simple: the same way blockchain helps provide transparency in crypto-currencies, votes could be reported in the public registers, making all data freely accessible, but only editable by authorised staff.
Negotiations with Sierra Leone had gone on for nearly a year before the election. The system was a success in the district where it was implemented, and this raises promising perspectives for spreading the technology elsewhere. If it could work in a place with bad internet connectivity, low literacy rates, and high voter suppression like Sierra Leone, it could work virtually anywhere else.
The end goal is of course to automatise the whole voting process, so that the citizens could vote digitally, from their homes, using biometric data and personalised cryptographic keys, while their votes could be validated through the blockchain platform. The project could be now expanded on larger scales, to other countries in Africa and around the world, while taking the local intricacies in consideration.
In any case, blockchain voting will be much cheaper, because no printing of voting materials will be required, no security and staff for the polling stations and ballot counting, etc. But what's more important, it will cut any possibilities for manipulation. The problem with vote buying will remain, though. Perhaps that should be the next problem that ought to be addressed.
