The FUTURE of Voting???? - Proof Of Vote - Blockchain Polling/Election Use Case Prototype
blockchain·@robertdurst10·
0.000 HBDThe FUTURE of Voting???? - Proof Of Vote - Blockchain Polling/Election Use Case Prototype
<center><h1>Proof of Vote</h1></center> <center>https://media.giphy.com/media/3oEhn3CCAjkduoZeYE/giphy.gif</center> An exciting application of blockchain technology! Here is something I worked on and presented at the Silicon Valley FinTech Week Hackathon last week. Enjoy! *** <h2>The Problem</h2> After the last election, it became painfully clear that the United States' voting process is not the best. Only 55% of the eligible voting population voted, yet it seems as if many more than that continue to complain daily about how the election turned out. From what I have observed, it all comes down to three main issues: 1) People are lazy and the current polling system is inconvenient. In a world of online banking, online shopping... basically online everything, why can't we vote online? 2) In contentious elections (such as the previous one) people are afraid to vote for their candidate. Vote the wrong way, say the wrong thing, and the government may come knocking on your door. 3) We have no way to check and confirm our vote was counted. This, along with the Russian and DNC controversies have really created a general distrust toward the current system. *** <h2>The Solution</h2> With inspiration from David Chaum's paper on a blind signature voting scheme and Follow My Vote, I created a blockchain based web application during the Silicon Valley FinTech Week Hackathon. This application solves all three problems because: 1) You are able to vote from home, at your computer (with or without pants). 2) Your vote is not tied to your ID, so no one, except for you, knows who you voted for. 3) You are able to view the voting ledger and see that your vote was properly recorded. *** <h2>How it Works: My Hackish Approach</h2> <center></center> **1)Verification and Anonymity** a) First, you must go through the verification process. In my prototype, you must enter a vaild USA phone number. b) Once your phone number is verified, you will generate a unique ID. <center></center> c) Now you must obtain a "voting token." Thus, you must ask the verifying party to give you a token so that you can vote. Giving them your ID is dumb... they then know who you are. So, you generate a one-time transaction address. By sending the token to this address, the verifier will not know who you are (as an extra level of security, the verifying party will wait to send the tokens until they get 3-5 one-time addresses). <center></center> **2)Vote** a) So, you are now "into the voting booth." You have your voting token in your unique ID wallet which is not linkable to your regular ID. b) Choose whichever candidate you desire and spend your token to vote. <center></center> **3)Confirm** a) Once you vote, you may browse the voting history ledger of the candidate you voted for. You should be able to see that your vote was in fact counted. <center><h3>The Demo is Live!!!! Go to https://robertdurst.github.io</h3></center> *** <h2>Implications and the Future</h2> If this system were to be implemented, it would fundamentally change the election process: more people would vote, more people would trust the system, and the government would be open to audit. Even more so, this technology could be implemented in rural communities, including those such as in small 3rd world countries. I am still very interested in this idea. This is now my second implementation (or iteration) of this concept and I am thinking about making the blockchain application less hackish and more secure/complex. To do this, I am thinking about implementing some smart contract functionality, using either Ethereum or EOS. *** <h2>Conclusion</h2> This is the longest blog I have posted in a while, and I want to quickly thank those who have stuck around. No, I did not quit Steemit. Instead, I scaled back and I think I have repurposed my intentions of using Steemit; I am now going to simply use this to blog... no witness, no Steem dev, no community admin. I am instead just going to blog about my deep dive into the world of blockchain, cryptocurrency, and technology in general. Hope y'all are having a great week, cheers, and Steem on! *** <center></center>