The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted individuals’s lives, the connection between governments and residents, and the complete world financial system, and naturally, it has had a serious influence on the USA presidential election.

On account of social isolation, numerous American voters opted to vote by mail, which elevated vote counting time, led candidate and performing President Donald Trump to judicialize the electoral course of with actions in a number of states, and triggered intense debates in regards to the veracity and legitimacy of the present American electoral system.

Associated: Blockchain voting programs might be the longer term, however present flaws persist

The present voting system within the digital age

At the moment, many have proposed “cell” voting instead extra suitable with present instances, permitting individuals to vote with out leaving their houses.

We’re in a position to store on-line, there are professions which might be carried out 100% remotely — which has intensified with the present pandemic — however electoral participation nonetheless must be exercised in individual and in a particular location.

Now, does this not go towards the digital age the place info and expertise function facilitators of communication, knowledge switch and enterprise transactions?

How does one make cell, or distant, voting doable with out compromising the safety of electoral participation? The addition of blockchain options to the cell voting course of may give confidence to the electoral system and produce peace to the electoral course of.

Associated: Digital voting with blockchain: An expertise from Naples, Italy

The mix of sequential hashing and cryptography in a distributed construction permits for the safety of voters’ id and the verification of completely all votes entered within the blockchain platform, which may allow safe and clear voting mechanisms with electoral vote monitoring.

Think about how good it will be to test in case your vote was really counted for the candidate chosen by you, with absolutely the assure of the secrecy of your vote? All of that is doable with blockchain expertise.

Associated: The promise and actuality of blockchain’s function in international elections

American electoral jurisdictions and blockchain-based pilot initiatives

Electoral jurisdictions in a number of U.S. states have examined mobile-application-based blockchain voting for state, federal and municipal elections — primarily to allow distant voting by army and civilian residents overseas by way of smartphones and tablets, somewhat than the standard and mail, fax and paper strategies.

West Virginia, for instance, enabled cell voting by way of blockchain for its state and federal elections again in 2018. Denver, Colorado; Utah County, Utah; and two counties within the state of Oregon additionally examined pilot initiatives for his or her 2019 municipal elections. In whole, 29 counties in 5 states tested Voatz’s cell voting app in official elections.

In all the examples talked about above, to the shock of many and in line with the authorities chargeable for voting by way of blockchain, the electoral course of proved to be simpler and extra accessible.

For that purpose, there are already advocates of using blockchain in American elections.

The positions of American political personalities on cell voting

Because of the great efficiency talked about within the earlier paragraphs, there are already notable figures in American politics elevating the banner of blockchain cell voting, resembling Bradley Tusk — an American businessman, philanthropist, political strategist and founding father of Tusk Philanthropies; Mike Queen — deputy chief of employees to the West Virginia Secretary of State; and Jocelyn Bucaro — director of elections in Denver.

However as a result of we live within the age of polarization, there are additionally individuals strongly towards cell voting, together with voting by way of blockchain. In that sense, we will check with Jeremy Epstein, a member of the Affiliation for Computing Equipment’s US Know-how Coverage Committee. Right here, it is very important word that Epstein — who was a vice chair of the committee on the time — co-authored an electoral safety report titled “E-mail and Web Voting: The Missed Risk to Election Safety,” which was developed at the side of Frequent Trigger, the Nationwide Election Protection Coalition and the R Avenue Institute.

The report factors to blockchain and web voting as a goal for on-line assaults by international intelligence, saying the transmission of ballots over the web — together with by e-mail, fax and blockchain programs — makes them weak.

Regardless of the professionals and cons, are there options already in place that may defend residents from electoral fraud? How would id verification be used within the course of? What initiatives and options can we consider implementing for id verification within the voting course of, and the way would they work?

A blockchain answer that may allow a digital election within the U.S.

The Voatz utility, for instance, seems for vulnerabilities and indicators of dedication or vulnerability from the beginning. If the app finds {that a} smartphone has been compromised, it doesn’t permit the person to vote. If the appliance passes safety exams and third-party instruments linked to it, the voter is authenticated on their cell phone by a fingerprint or facial recognition.

The voter then offers their authorities identification, normally a driver’s license or passport, and takes a selfie for additional authentication. Lastly, the voter touches the fingerprint reader of their mobile phone to confirm that the smartphone is definitely within the voter’s palms. On this step, the Voatz utility combines the selfie taken by the voter with the picture of the id doc and, after rechecking all of the registration info given, confirms that the voter can vote.

Voters can use their very own extra authentication issue, resembling an Apple Watch, Google Authenticator or a YubiKey. And if they need, they will nonetheless obtain an SMS message or e-mail as an extra authentication issue.

Cybersecurity in a blockchain vote

Concerning cybersecurity, as “all” software program has vulnerabilities, it can’t be ignored that denial-of-service and distributed denial-of-service assaults are official risks in a cell vote. Subsequently, it is very important search for backup methods for doable infrastructure failure within the case of a DoS assault on the cell voting system.

The blockchain a part of the method is the least worrying when it comes to safety. It is only one part of the voting course of, which additionally contains the steps of id safety, verification and validation.

Blockchain, within the case of Voatz, is for the precise utility for which it was constructed: to distribute voting information in order that it’s tougher to assault remotely. It additionally has cryptographic audit proof of every transaction.

The principle safety danger in voting by way of blockchain is within the interface with the electoral jurisdiction, the place the poll can be printed with a hash or encrypted key on high. After it’s saved, it’s lastly digitized within the election programs and software program ballot-reading programs. At this stage, the electoral course of “is out of attain” for Voatz.

Along with cybersecurity points, one other level in a blockchain vote that has been questioned is: How would the voting ebook be processed and the ballots verified in a blockchain answer?

Taking the Voatz app for instance once more, it makes use of a 32-node blockchain infrastructure on Amazon Net Providers and Microsoft Azure, every internet hosting 16 nodes in the USA. Cloudflare is amongst a number of firms that present DDoS-protection companies, and Voatz has mentioned that the system employs end-to-end encryption and multi-factor authentication for infrastructure nodes.

One other blockchain voting answer was utilized in Colombia in 2016. “Blockchain Voting for Peace” is a case study by the Organisation for Financial Cooperation and Growth of a referendum held in Colombia again then. In it, the nonprofit group Democracy Earth Basis creates a blockchain platform to permit Colombians residing overseas to symbolically take part within the plebiscite on the peace treaty between the federal government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, generally often known as FARC. The fascinating factor right here is the potential for democratic protection supplied by the blockchain.

Key takeaways

From what we have now seen to date, it’s not an exaggeration to think about that within the close to future, many international locations will see blockchain expertise as a super voting methodology for a society that’s more and more digitized sooner than ever.

Nevertheless, even when the maturity of the expertise is reached and it successfully brings larger legitimacy to the electoral course of and veracity to the voting system, will we have the ability to overcome the cultural limitations and digital illiteracy that also exist in immediately’s world?

The views, ideas and opinions expressed listed below are the writer’s alone and don’t essentially mirror or characterize the views and opinions of Cointelegraph.

Tatiana Revoredo is a founding member of the Oxford Blockchain Basis and is a strategist in blockchain at Saïd Enterprise College on the College of Oxford. Moreover, she is an skilled in blockchain enterprise purposes at MIT and is the chief technique officer of The International Technique. Tatiana has been invited by the European Parliament to the Intercontinental Blockchain Convention and was invited by the Brazilian parliament to the general public listening to on Invoice 2303/2015. She is the writer of two books: Blockchain: Tudo O Que Você Precisa Saber and Cryptocurrencies within the Worldwide Situation: What Is the Place of Central Banks, Governments and Authorities About Cryptocurrencies?