blockchain Voting is a good thing when it comes to future elections. After several voting machine scandals around the world, blockchain voting could mean fairer voting and less gross propaganda.
A Japanese startup company has just received a development grant to build a blockchain-based electronic voting system with embedded user IDs. Hopefully, this means the voting machine scandal la Trump will be a thing of the past.
This week, PHI Inc. in Japan. was awarded a ‘Free and Open Grant’ by the Concordium Foundation. The grant money is to be channeled towards the development of an innovative electronic open voting project. Named GoVote, it will run on the Concordium blockchain.
The PHI team’s voting system was not initially designed for elections. It was designed to cast votes through a Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO). It is in preparation for the Web3 era. GoVote can be used for general meetings and gatherings of shareholders and other online communities where votes need to be cast. But now, everyone sees the bigger picture – blockchain voting can prevent voting scams in national elections. And we don’t even need to come out of our homes to vote.
The world is no stranger to the idea of electronic voting. Voting machines have been working for decades. However, most of the adventures with these machines have sparked controversy which sealed their doom.
Embarrassing Voting Machine Adventures
For the most embarrassing voting machine adventure ever, Ireland should be awarded an NFT trophy for its effort in 2002.
The Irish government spent $61 million on e-voting machines. The promise was that electronic voting and electronic counting would save time and money. If only. It was a shameful nuisance that seems wildly laughable even today.
The main problem with these machines was that they could be easily tampered with. And they could not give a printout about the votes cast using them. This meant that the votes could not be rechecked.
By the time the decision was made to scrap the machines in 2009, Ireland had spent over $4m on storage. In the end, 7,500 machines were picked up and recycled for scrap metals for about $11 each. Flattery.
Trump’s Voting Machine Grip
No one elects like America. It’s a circus of epic proportions, and the voting machine saga was just one part of it. A voting machine scandal became apparent during the last elections. Outgoing President Donald Trump criticized the use of the electronic voting system. He claimed that it got him lakhs of votes.
The machines were provided by the Dominion Voting System. Several stories went around detailing how the owners of the voting machine company had relations with political opponents of Trump. And, Trump’s votes were removed due to hidden software coding. Or, that Trump’s votes were flipped so he registered as a Biden vote. There were voter identification issues and other claims.
We may never know the real story behind Dominion Voting Machines. However, the most obvious problem that needs to be solved is that of authenticity. Any type of electronic voting system needs to be able to verify identity in a secure way, but that process needs to protect voter privacy. This is the unique selling point of the blockchain.
blockchain voting
PHI is working with Concordium Blockchain – a specialist in identity management. This is to provide vote anonymity, and tamper-resistant voting results. Switzerland-based Concordium is a Web 3.0-based, sustainable and science-proven blockchain. It is the first decentralized blockchain with identity at the protocol level. This identity layer provides transactional confidentiality while supporting regulatory accountability.
Lone Fens Schröder is the CEO of Concordium. She says online voting has been talked about for a long time and is gaining momentum, especially in the post-COVID era. “While the technology has been available for quite some time, concerns remain about the traceability and vulnerability of these systems. Using blockchain to address some of the challenges is another use case for this technology.”
takashi oka He is the co-founder of PHI. He says that PHI is the first team in Japan to receive a grant from the Concordium Foundation. “The PHI team will be a bridge between Web2.0 and Web3.0, contributing greatly to the growth of the blockchain space. On the back of the slow progress in the use of public blockchains by companies and public affairs, there is a need to meet regulatory requirements such as AML/CFT. At Concordium, it is possible to develop applications/services that solve this problem by using the ID function to achieve both identity verification and privacy.”
While the blockchain voting system is showing signs of a bright future, we still don’t have any decent politicians on the horizon. Is there any DApp for this?
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