Bitcoin network used to secure local GOP convention election results

The Bitcoin web was utilized to unafraid and store the results of the Williamson County, Tennessee Republican Party Convention’s March 4 predetermination to find the enactment and committee of the section GOP chapter.

According to Simple Proof, the bundle level utilized to grounds the predetermination results to the immutable blockchain ledger, the information was successfully stored connected artifact fig 886,370 astatine 11:15:30 UTC.

According to the onchain data, Steve Hickey was elected president of the section convention, Tim Raynaud won the ballot to go treasurer, and Leigh Ann Cates was elected arsenic caput of the organization.

The Simple Proof papers verification for the Williamson County GOP normal predetermination results. Source: Simple Proof

Blockchains person been pitched arsenic a more unafraid alternative to accepted insubstantial ballots oregon physics systems owed to their tamper-proof, transparent and distributed nature.

The immutability and verifiability of blockchain systems tin perchance guarantee predetermination integrity, track authorities spending onchain, trim hefty predetermination costs and guarantee same-day predetermination results.

Williamson County GOP normal predetermination results. Source: Simple Proof

Related: Coinbase CEO calls for blockchain-based US Treasury

Blockchain tin alteration the antiauthoritarian process, but issues persist

Voting machines often interruption down owed to attraction issues and diagnostic “black box” tabulation algorithms, which are not easy verified by the public.

This has led ample swaths of the colonisation to question whether oregon not their ballot was accurately and reasonably counted — yet contributing to galore among the electorate losing religion successful the antiauthoritarian process.

More caller innovations specified arsenic layer-2 networks and zero-knowledge proofs supply the scalability and privateness required for an onchain voting strategy to beryllium a viable alternate to established methods.

However, blockchain-based voting systems inactive contiguous their challenges, including the grade of centralization and cybersecurity concerns.

MIT insubstantial outlining problems successful blockchain voting systems. Source: MIT

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) released a report successful 2020 outlining the information challenges of a blockchain-based voting system.

MIT’s study cited Voatz, a blockchain voting level utilized successful municipal elections, which suffers from galore cybersecurity issues, including offchain information execution and recognition issues.

An audit of the strategy recovered that users could airs arsenic different individuals and formed a ballot without the strategy discovering that the ballot was fraudulently entered into the system.

These issues could beryllium mitigated with a capable grade of decentralization and ensuring that each information calculations and logic are executed onchain, making blockchain voting viable.

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