Where else than in Zug could one imagine a better place to create the first customizable blockchain-based e-voting system? Zug has become known worldwide as “Crypto Valley” — the Silicon Valley for cryptocurrencies where leading technology experts and innovative companies from across the globe come together to start new exciting projects and introduce new companies in this area.
With Luxoft Holding, Inc., a global IT service provider of innovative technology solutions that delivers measurable business outcomes to multinational companies, the City of Zug aims to create an e-voting platform that enables the first consultative vote based on blockchain in Switzerland. As one of the founding members of The Crypto Valley Association, which aims to build the world’s leading blockchain and cryptographic technology ecosystem, Luxoft will partner with organizations working on government-based blockchain service solutions and invite them to jointly create Blockchain for Government Alliance. In the pursuit of driving the adoption of blockchain-based services in government, Luxoft is striving to establish a blockchain for government alliance and hence promote blockchain use-cases in public institutions. As Europe’s leading supporter of blockchain, Zug already accepts cryptocurrency for services and has digitized ID registrations built on the blockchain. With Luxoft’s e-voting platform, a safe and secure move towards online voting is now made possible.
As explained by Luxoft, the blockchain based solution e-Vote, including the platform itself, software and algorithms is built on Hyperledger Fabric. Integrated with Zug’s Ethereum-based digital ID registration application, residents are hereby allowed to cast votes on the blockchain. “The solution uses an innovative encryption technology that on one hand anonymizes the votes and on the other hand allows tamper-proof tally and secure audit”, according to Luxoft.
Luxoft’s Chief Technology Officer Vasily Suvorov is aware of concerns with the e-voting platform since it plays the role of a fundamental mechanism for direct democracy. For this reason, he emphasizes that a single company cannot own this technology and that it should be open source “so people can understand what makes up the technology and how it works, ensuring full transparency.” He sees here the potential of encouraging with this technology more people to develop blockchain-based applications for governments across the globe.
The solution uses an innovative encryption technology that anonymizes the votes and allows tamper-proof tally and secure audit. With the help from the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts, Amazon AWS and n’cloud.swiss, the platform is deployed on three different data centers in the cloud. Two of these are in Switzerland and one in Ireland. By distributing the data into three different data centers, security and data loss risks are distributed geographically, making the system more robust.
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