An election is one of the oldest human activities. It was born when Neandertal tribes, 40 thousand years ago, probably somewhere in the Caucasus plains, decided to hunt a giant mammoth to survive. It's a group move, and we have to agree on something to grab a specific result.
What matters in an election is the majority opinion - democracy. The election is a way among many ways to reach democracy. As you may know, elections are currently underway in France. Marine le pen and Emmanuel Macron will compete against each other. France is one of the best examples of a republic country system in the world. It could potentially be the first, in history, to legitimize democracy in the form of an election.
From the first days of the bloody French revolution in the 18th century, all lovers of democratic systems were concerned about safety and election transparency.
This is why, in traditional voting systems, every paper ballot represents a voter's identity. The only way to monitor and control such elections is the presence of Supervisors from rival parties at the polling station to control their rival ballot boxes so that there is no fraud. Electronic voting, an alternative that seems like a perfect solution to this problem, is not very common and is not very widespread.
One part of the problem with this type of voting is the unavailability of Internet infrastructure in some areas. Traditional or paper ballot voting takes precedence because many rural areas do not have access to the Internet.
Electronic voting has two modes:
- The person goes to the polling station and registers the identity electronically instead of signing the paper ballot with a pen under the supervisor.
- A person sitting at home fills in the ballot paper received by the government by mail and probably registers and scans the QR code.
We know that the second way has low security because no one can guarantee data transfer to the database. You may ask, "Well, the government is the guarantee, right?" The bug in democracy is the fact that the government is the supervisor of an election that ends in its favor! It is clear that in cases of fraud, the government and the influential government parties have more power than the people, and it's contrary to the national interests and the essence of democracy and the majority republic.
The government is the most powerful institution in every country, so it has more opportunities for fraud. So how can it guarantee that it does not manipulate the database? " it cannot !". The government cannot be completely honest or transparent until we force it.
One example of fraud involving a government was the 2009 Iran election that ultimately led to Ahmadinejad's presidency. Although the Conservative Party denied the possibility of fraud. Usually, such things happen in small towns where the supervision of rival parties is not so strict. It's a kind of blind spot that messes with democracy and it did so in 2009.
You see, this is the bug of the republic and voting. Everyone says: " No ... the problem is the improper monitoring! ". When the government is in power, you may never have a transparent election.
These are just some of the problems with traditional voting. There are many other issues like the loss of ballot papers by accident or ballot papers being tampered with, illegitimate signatures or names of people, duplicate registration of people's names, and many other things.
Blockchain and Its Role in Voting Transparency and Security
We know that a blockchain is an interconnected structure in which each data block has its hash block address value. In other words, it's a chain of correlated data. The front block isn't read without the presence and approval of the previous block.
It means that if I want to get to the content of block B, there must be a block that confirms that block B is the continuation of the previous one. Simply put, your data will store on the set of blocks in the blockchain system instead of the national bank database. Due to the decentralized structure, cyber-attacks will be impossible or less possible.
All this info was the definition of blockchain in the financial structure, and you may say to yourself, " what does it have to do with voting? ".
Maybe we misunderstood the blockchain. The main reason is that we Iranians, thanks to our bigot friends, have been bankrupt for 40 years. This issue caused the hype of the market and the pull of the Iranians towards the crypto market to prevent bankruptcy. Our background thinking over the definition of blockchain is what we strive for in survival which is why other uses of blockchain were more or less ignored.
You see, blockchain is not just a place for cryptocurrencies, it is also a place for storing unique data in a decentralized way so that it is transparent. This means that data X reaches the destination from the current location so everyone can see it. If I were to summarize the blockchain in two words, they would be security and transparency. In other words, it's suitable for election.
Now you may be saying to yourself: "No, man, I don't think there is anyone in this world who wants to create a blockchain structure for elections!", seeing as our country - the mother of corruption - doesn’t think too much about transparency. However, in other ‘normal’ countries, many private institutions are working very seriously on this issue. A company called "Horizon State" is one of these companies. The company's insight is amazing.
You see, when we talk about voting, we do not necessarily mean elections. Voting is available on all platforms these days. You may not have paid much attention, but today most human decisions are based on these careless and unreliable ballots. Well, let's assume this: " when you go into Google Play to download an app, what is the first thing you notice? It's obvious. it's scoring. Can this vote be trusted? Think a little about it".
In Digikala, you want to see which product has a higher rank, which means more customer satisfaction. How can you trust a higher ranking?. On the other hand, this digital voting system does not show the statistical numbers, for example, scoring number 4 and a half out of 5. how many people voted in this scoring system?. Ten people voted? A thousand people voted? How many?
Providing companies with blockchain voting or ranking services to replace this unreliable voting system is the Horizon State's work.
So you see, the blockchain is not limited to voting in the presidential election, and it also has economic applications. In the case of elections, it can also have an economic dimension, as the government can give money to one or more private companies to be responsible for implementing the electoral blockchain system. Both people and organizations could easily monitor the transparency of votes during this system.
Now, if I want to look at this issue from the financial cost of implementing this system, compared to traditional voting, which includes paper and transportation, observers' salaries, and the amount of electricity, experts concluded that it costs an average of $7 to $25 per vote. A blockchain vote, on the other hand, costs about half a dollar.
With the added advantage of its security and transparency, there are no cars traffic, air pollution, and fighting with cops in blockchain voting. Now you calculate the cost of these organizations these days and see what the situation is!
Yes, democracy costs money, and blockchain minimizes this costly cycle. Many do not like blockchain voting for fear of transparency, and many for fear of cutting government spending money!
You may say to yourself, "This dude sees everything as simple?" Dear friend, the world is a set of transparent equations, and complexity is merely a way to cover up systematic corruption.
Transparency schemes often fail very quickly due to a lack of economic efficiency. But blockchain is the only reliable system that, in addition to transparency, also brings economic benefits to the whole world. It leaves us with "one step left to a true democracy" sooner or later.