Voting on the Blockchain
By: Shaan Ray
Tags: Cryptography, Blockchain, Blockchain Technology, Bhq Contributors, Voting

Photo by Anthony Garand on Unsplash

Voting is a major potential use case of blockchain technology. In most democracies, there are active debates on topics such as increasing voter turnout, decreasing voter fraud, and increasing public trust in the democratic system. Ironically, the introduction of electronic voting in many countries has prompted underperforming political parties to blame potential hacking or rigging of the electronic system, and to demand a return to completely paper ballots.

Bringing voting to the blockchain would allow for transparency in the system while protecting voter privacy. Election monitors and political parties would have a common, tamper-proof record of all votes that could be audited for fraud quickly.

A Blockchain-Powered Voting System

To submit a vote on the blockchain, an election officer would need to verify a voter’s eligibility to vote. This step would most likely take place off the blockchain (to protect privacy). Once a person’s eligibility to vote is verified, the voter would receive a randomly generated key or token that would allow them to vote. Since each key is unique, the voter would not be able to vote twice (neither in the same voting booth, nor in a different city or state).

A Secure System

On a voting blockchain, a specific number of votes would form a block. The blocks would be chained together using cryptography, so it would be impossible to alter any vote in the chain without also tampering with other votes in the chain. Additionally, the distributed nature of the system would mean any tampered copy would be rejected by the other nodes.

The system would be tamper-proof as long as bad actors did not acquire over 50 percent of the nodes to tamper with the data (and stage a so-called “51 percent attack”). If the blockchain is private, the distribution of nodes (at voting booths) would be overseen by an election authority, and a 51 percent attack would be impossible. If the blockchain is public, the designer would have to take precautions to promote decentralization, and actively monitor against accumulation of massive computing power on the blockchain.

Blockchain-Enabled Voting Efforts Around the World

Japan

Last month, the Japanese city of Tsukuba introduced a blockchain-enabled voting system for its citizens to vote on local social development programs. Voter eligibility was determined by scanning a social security card and entering a password. The vote was generally successful, though several residents were not able to verify their eligibility because they forgot their passwords.

Switzerland

The Swiss region of Zug, which has emerged as a hub for blockchain-enabled solutions, tested blockchain-based voting in July. For the trial, citizens of Zug were asked to vote on a fictitious consultative issue. Each user signed in to vote via an electronic ID system on their smartphone. Though turnout was understandably low, the vote was a success.

United States

West Virginia tested blockchain-based voting for military personnel who cannot vote in person. The test involved a very small group of people casting votes for the May 2018 election primaries via their smartphones. Voter eligibility was first verified remotely through a federal or state ID. Voters were then able to cast votes using their smartphones. West Virginia’s pilot program was conducted in partnership with Voatz, a venture-backed Boston startup offering blockchain voting solutions.

Sierra Leone

In Sierra Leone, a blockchain company ran a small test of its blockchain voting solution during that country’s 2018 presidential election.

Corporate Voting

Since blockchain technology is relatively new, governments are unlikely to adopt it on a large scale until issues of security and scalability are fully addressed.

Instead, corporations are likely to lead the way in the adoption of blockchain voting solutions for corporate votes. In 2016, Nasdaq tested a blockchain-enabled e-voting platform in Estonia, on its Tallinn exchange. Earlier this year, the Spanish bank Santander introduced blockchain-based voting for its annual shareholder meeting. Developing a reliable blockchain voting infrastructure is a priority for many companies and industry organizations.

Blockchain Voting Needs Trustworthy Governance

Initially, blockchain voting is most likely to be successful in the countries that need it the least, such as Switzerland. For several years at least, blockchain voting will not be viable in countries that do not have trustworthy election commissions. Though blockchain solutions aspire to be trustworthy because they are decentralized, they ironically need to be put in place by trustworthy organizations in the early stages of their adoption.

Conclusion

Though voting is an excellent use case for blockchain technology, elections are rightfully a sensitive area for the introduction of a new technology. Blockchain infrastructure is being rapidly developed in many industries and for numerous use cases around the world. Large scale voting on the blockchain will become possible once voting pilots have successfully tackled security and scalability issues and engendered public trust.