Blockchain and Democracy in Western Countries

Can cryptocurrencies – specifically the blockchains be used in the era of Democracy in Western countries?

How does voting work on the blockchain and why it is needed?

There's a reason why we should go to the polls – to do our civic duty and fill out our ballots. Anonymous ballots are the easiest way to protect the integrity of voting and at the same time protect the privacy of voters. Digital voting is a difficult task because it is difficult to verify the correctness of each blockchain unit while maintaining its anonymity. Voting on the blockchain can change this with the help of cryptography.

Voting on the blockchain is already changing some elections.

 Right now, military personnel from West Virginia, U.S., who serve overseas, can vote in their home elections using their cell phones. A combination of encryption and a blockchain registry counts those votes. Other countries, such as Brazil, Denmark, South Korea and Switzerland, are exploring the possibility of voting on the blockchain. However, Estonia is in the lead.

 Their citizens have unique identity cards that allow them to vote quickly and securely using blockchain.

Digitizing the most important part of democracy can have profound and lasting implications for global governance. Citizens can make decisions much faster, and a referendum is a possible option. Representative democracy can be excluded by the people from direct democracy. But that's not all. Another result is that election fraud could become a more difficult, almost impossible task. This article looks at how blockchain voting works and its impact on the world.

Basics of voting on the blockchain

Voting on the blockchain is similar to analogue voting, to which we are accustomed. The same concepts and processes apply. To cast a digital vote, a citizen will have to register and prove their citizenship in that jurisdiction. We can then record that identity and citizenship on the blockchain associated with that user's key.

In the usual elections, a citizen needs a ballot paper. On the blockchain, this can take the form of a special voting token that will be credited to the user's account. This token is also likely to have a time limit during which it can be used for voting, after which it will burn itself with a smart contract or simply become useless.

Voting on a specific blockchain to a specific address. Voters will know which address matches which candidate or referendum. Sending a token to this address will mean voting for a specific candidate.

Technically, it sounds quite simple. Voting is recorded on the blockchain, where every vote is unchanged, verifiable and transparent. We can easily count the votes to declare the winner of an election. In addition, we can create nice user interfaces that automate and hide the process of sending a token to a specific address. Instead, voters will see a simple online interface for selecting a candidate or proposal and clicking the "Submit" button.

Voter identity verification

If this first explanation sounded simple, and you wonder why we don't vote using blockchain, just wait. It's a lot more complicated than that. Many issues need to be addressed first.

One of the main problems is verifying the identity of the voter. For blockchain voting to work, we need a system that prohibits people from voting more than once or voting in elections where they are not citizens. This is difficult to do with blockchain because it relies on a central authority to verify citizenship or residence documents.

The blockchain solution will likely be based on sending passports or driver's license checks.

 This identity can then be linked to the mobile device using a password and 2FA(two-factor authentications) or biometrics (such as a fingerprint). The idea is to make sure that the person who submitted the citizenship documents is the same person who is actively involved in the operation of the computer or smartphone at the time of voting.

Maintaining anonymity and secret voting

However, after we have verified the identity and voting rights, we need to separate it from the ballot itself. It is important to note that one of the key elements of democracy is the secret ballot. No one needs to know how you voted so that they can't influence your vote in any way.

When voting on the blockchain, the information that is recorded on the blockchain should not include identifiable information. This means that information about the sender of the token for voting must be hidden. There are different ways to do this, including zero-knowledge proofs, ring transactions, or various encryption methods. Each has its advantages, disadvantages, and technical challenges. True anonymity at the same time as verified identity is a big problem when voting on the blockchain.

Cybersecurity experts generally agree that blockchains are not hackable (with the right network size and consensus algorithm). Logical proofs and statistics show that it is becoming less likely that a block could be hacked after the network confirms this. However, the anonymity required for voting is more difficult to ensure and to be sure that it will not be compromised.

Possible consequences.

Voting on the blockchain is of great importance if it grows in popularity and usability for the general public. 

This can fundamentally change the functioning of a democratic system.

Has been summarized as the below 5 points for better understanding:

1. Increased transparency in the voting

process The biggest advantage of voting with the help of blockchain is an increase in transparency. Right now, when you voted, you don't know what happened next. You trust survey workers to calculate this correctly. However, there's no way to make sure your vote counts.

On the blockchain, it would be possible to track your vote and make sure that it was in the right place. Even though it wouldn't link your information to it, your voice will exist on the blockchain for the entire story.

2. Reducing Election

Fraud A side effect of increased transparency is reduced fraud. It is becoming increasingly difficult to cheat the system or vote in the wrong jurisdiction with blockchain authentication. Moreover, in countries where dictators falsify elections, blockchain can bring real democracy. Of course, initiating a blockchain voting system requires the participation of the current government. However, over time, blockchain could become an international voting standard, and the global community will advocate for blockchain governance in all countries.

3. Daily Real-Time Voting (easier to closely monitor).

Voting If blockchain makes voting transparent, then we can monitor and count votes in real-time. This means that elections can take place in a much shorter time frame. Also, if they are digital, they require less investment in voting infrastructure. As a result, short-term elections can be held for quick voting in a referendum.

This can completely change everyday life. Imagine if you could vote on the phone about how traffic in your city would be routed today, or whether taxes should be increased to pay for a new park in your community. Voting can become targeted, even depending on the district. There would be a bit of overhead for voting more often, perhaps making voting a daily occurrence.

4. Corporate governance and autonomous government organizations

are not the only institutions that can benefit from voting on the blockchain. Employees or shareholders can also vote for initiatives within the company. You can even imagine ownerless companies, where every decision is an open vote of shareholders.

5. Increasing voter participation 

one of the big advantages of

voting on the blockchain can be the more active voter participation. If blockchain makes digital voting possible from a smartphone or computer, voting becomes as simple as logging in and voting in just a few minutes. This is likely to dramatically increase voter turnout, leading to a better democracy.

What makes technologists expect blockchain will be part of election (Democracy in general) The high safety and security of blockchain?

Blockchain is a complicated multiprocessing system, each unit in the blockchain needs more than 950Million of Tera Hash power to be attacked and being cracked or leaked (Bitcoin – blockchain) therefore all information related to voters, environmental and social activist is confidential.

And this will open a new discussion on how the blockchain, and cryptocurrencies can play an important role in environmental activism and human rights advocacy as blockchain can be a crucial partner to NGOs worldwide that work as catalyst
ts of secured confidential of new good deeds gateway.

References:

Society and Economy, Bloc kchain and Democracy, JOUR, Racsko, Peter, VL 41,10.1556/204.2019.007, 2019/06/14.