The Future of Voting Is Blockchain

The Future of Voting Is Blockchain

By Perianne Boring

The U.S. has suffered its share of challenges when it comes to collecting and counting votes – from long lines at the polls, to ensuring citizens are registered (and motivated) to vote, to questions surrounding whether a chad was left “hanging” during the 2000 Presidential election, to a myriad of other concerns. No matter what side of the political aisle you fall, we can all agree that the process of casting a ballot could use some improvement.

Despite having evolved over time from the physical tokens used in ancient Athenian democracy to medieval little balls (“ballots”) to paper slips to mechanical voting machines to punch cards to optical scanners — the process of voting continues to be vexed with potential vulnerabilities and shortcomings.

Today, with the midterm elections upon us, the public is eagerly awaiting details on the progress made in the voting process. Could blockchain offer the solution?

How it Works: Blockchain Creates a Tamper-Free Electronic Record

One of the reasons that electoral officials have been slow to migrate voting online is fear that election integrity could be compromised by hackers. It seems the headlines are riddled with concerns regarding cybersecurity, so it’s no wonder. But that’s where blockchain comes in, which promises to combine much-needed ballot security with voting convenience.

Blockchain integrates cryptography into software in a unique way.  It creates a tamper-free record that can easily be checked to ensure votes are accurately recorded.

Due to the secure and immutable nature of blockchain, votes may be cast by computer or mobile device instead of having voters show up at a local polling place or cast a mail-in-ballot to be processed manually by election officials. Votes tracked through a blockchain provide for a quicker, tamper-proof way of counting votes, which could lead to greater voter participation, better ballot security, and at lower cost.

Blockchain’s Bolstered Security is Being Put to Practice Today

West Virginia, for example, is piloting a program to allow its military workers to vote remotely and securely via a blockchain-enabled platform from abroad. This November, all overseas workers from West Virginia will be offered the opportunity to vote via the blockchain network which will distribute and store the votes in 16 different locations – meaning hackers would need to hack into multiple locations in order to tamper with the results. In the nonpolitical voting zone, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame used Chamber member Votem’s blockchain voting system to register 1.8 million votes. That 2017 Hall of Fame inductee process proved that blockchain voting could be effectively and efficiently used by millions, without fraud compromise or attacks.

Votem is introducing a token which will enable citizens to easily vote online, including from their mobile devices with an unprecedented level of verifiability, accessibility, security, and transparency.

Pete Martin, Votem Founder and CEO, sees the public’s leeriness of electronic voting and recent voting scandals as “both an opportunity and an issue.”

“It just requires more education on our part. People are fearful, and I get it. But we’re not going to shirk our responsibilities to make sure we can engender the trust with elections officials and people buying the system,” said Martin.

The implications for developing countries which do not yet have the voting infrastructure that the United States has are even more dramatic and could prove a powerful instrument for the continuing spread of representative democracy.

Voting should be as easy as hopping online from home to pay bills from your checking account. In today’s digital age, we can do better. By using blockchain to make voting more convenient and secure, we will encourage more people to vote.

Voting began, in ancient Athens, by the “casting” of clay or metal tokens.  Now, in the 21^st century, we are observing the emergence of 21^st century tokenization of voting: casting our ballots via blockchain technology.

Welcome to blockchain: the 21^st century way of voting.

 

Chamber Supports Coordinated Approach Among Industry and Regulators Globally

Chamber Supports Coordinated Approach Among Industry and Regulators Globally

Recently, almost a dozen global regulators came together to support regulatory harmonization across national borders. The creation of the Global Financial Innovation Network (GFIN) was designed to do just that, to: (i) establish a network of regulators; (ii) facilitate collaboration on policy work and regulatory trials; and (iii) support B2B and B2C cross-border trials. The creation of this new body with a global reach is an important signal that regulators worldwide are both understanding the significant potential of blockchain technology and actively establishing ways to support it. Challenges remain, however, in working out the details of such a collaboration.

The Chamber of Digital Commerce recently submitted comments to the GFIN’s Consultation Document, issued in August, to let the regulators know, in a unified voice, of the critical need for support as well as the regulatory lessons learned of the blockchain ecosystem.

After consultation with interested members, we stressed that adopting best regulatory practices in harmony will allow regulators around the world to better protect consumers without imposing excessive, onerous, gratuitous, or duplicative compliance requirements on the industry. Concepts such as regulatory sandboxes and harmonized policy objectives are exactly what this industry needs to rethink and revamp its oversight of growing technologies.

The Chamber supports the initiation of the GFIN as a mechanism for harmonization of best regulatory practices. Nevertheless, a problem noted in many digital environments is the concept of inconsistent and sometimes duplicative regulatory regimes across the globe. Ill-considered requirements will have the undesired consequence of crushing innovation and economic growth. Such a development would be inimical to national and global welfare and to the mission of the regulators themselves.
To this end, we cautioned that the GFIN should not serve as a mechanism to proliferate such regulations, which would neither serve the safety of consumers nor the growth of a new high-tech sector.

Among specific concerns the Chamber expressed in its comments are the large number of agencies in the United States engaged in the exercise of regulatory authority in addition to the GFIN’s primary U.S. counterpart, the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection. We support the Bureau’s foresight and innovation in joining such a group. That said, other U.S. regulatory agencies – including the CFTC and SEC – are entirely autonomous from the Bureau. The GFIN must consider how it will cover U.S. businesses within its regulatory sandbox if its U.S. participants are subject to rules maintained outside its borders. Further, any new regulatory harmonization should simplify regulations, not create duplicate or overlapping regimes. These are challenges that are difficult to solve, but we are excited to work with the GFIN to find innovative ways to solve them.

Overall, the Chamber views the formation of the GFIN as an important signal that regulators worldwide are understanding the important potential of blockchain technology and are actively establishing ways to support it. We encourage thoughtful and meaningful steps such as these to help businesses gain a foothold, grow, and scale in this digital, global industry.

The Chamber is grateful to its members for providing their time and experience to develop this important proactive response. We look forward to providing significant ongoing support to the GFIN in making its recommended protocols optimally constructive, both in protecting consumers and fostering the development of the invaluable emerging technology of distributed ledgers and blockchain.

To review the Chamber’s comment letter to the GFIN, please click here.

Recommended Reading:
Life After Google

There have been many books written about the blockchain. The pace of publication is quickening as the technology matures. The Foundation of the Chamber of Digital Commerce shares some of the most interesting books and publications of interest to the blockchain and digital asset community. View recommendations here.

Life After Google: The Fall of Big Data and the Rise of the Blockchain Economy

by George Gilder

Published:  July 17, 2018

From Amazon.com: