Can Blockchain Change the Way We Vote?
The 2020 US Presidential Election is still underway. It’s been over three days and there is still no verdict. While it’s an unprecedented situation, with over 100 million mail-in ballots to be counted, we should’ve gone digital long ago.
Binance CEO and Ethereum Founder Agree that Blockchain Voting is the Future
CZ, or Changpeng Zhao, the CEO of Binance, and Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin have agreed that voting by Blockchain is the future. However, they recognize that it won’t be easy to implement. CZ tweeted that this is the right time for developers to build Blockchain based alternatives.
He argued that his voting system can reduce the time taken to confirm an election’s outcome. Not only that, but it can enhance a voter’s privacy as well as eliminate doubts about voter fraud. With so many questions about voter fraud arising in the US as of late, this seems like more than an apt solution.
Vitalik Buterin shared the post and added that it’ll be an uphill battle. He acknowledged the technical challenges of designing a cryptographic voting system. He also clarified that cryptographic approaches need not be Blockchain-based. He reasoned that though a Blockchain could count every vote, it couldn’t verify whether each vote was valid.
COVID-19 Has Forced People to Adopt Digital Services
There is no better time to consider a shift to digital services. COVID-19 has forced people to adopt digital services like payments apps and online retail services. The reason that nearly 100 million people voted by mail in ballots in the US election was due to spiking coronavirus cases. However, we’re living in an age where you can authenticate your identity via a smartphone app to pay for anything. We should be able to vote through some similar mechanism as well.
Rigged Elections are Becoming a Huge Problem
The US isn’t the only country that is caught in the middle of an election. Take Belarus for example. The country’s President, Aleksandr Lukashenko was re-elected in August with 80% of the vote. This has triggered protests throughout the country. In Hungary, the election held in 2018 was deemed to be not entirely fair by Observers.
To at least ensure legitimate voting Blockchain seems to be a very viable option. There’s no way to tamper with the vote count, and with multiple nodes, Blockchain can ensure no rigging. There may be problems to iron out in the final implementation, but developers can surely come up with something half decent.
Digital voting in some form should’ve become the norm in a digital world where there’s an app for everything. However, the pandemic has been the biggest wake up call for every country around the world. Blockchain voting may not be the perfect solution for some, but it’s safer than the paper-based alternative we have now.
