Published
5 years ago on
August 10, 2018
“West Virginia is testing the new method, which uses blockchain technology to store and secure digital votes, at a time of heightened concern about election meddling. U.S. intelligence officials warn that Russia could interfere in the congressional midterms on Nov. The West Virginia experiment could help determine whether blockchain, widely used in cryptocurrency, has a place in election security.â€See more for yourself, here. Indeed, we have seen plenty examples of this. US armed forces used a blockchain vote system whilst based in Afghanistan as it was logistically easier to carry out than by posting out voting slips to troops there. The city of Zug, Switzerland’s own ‘Crypto Valley’ has also used a blockchain vote pilot with the aim to employ a blockchain voting system to allow locals to vote on matters of public affair, such as council decisions for example. Overall, this is something that is becoming more and more common. The blockchain can democratise democracy. Voting doesn’t have to just exist within politics, voting can make all sorts of decisions more democratic and its likely that blockchain voting will become more common within other arenas before it is able to completely realign political polls and truly make democracy more democratic. The take home message though is that this is something that is being worked on and is being focused on. It won’t be long before we see local elections take up this sort of technology and thus, we expect that elections on a national level might one day become a far more realistic prospect. The blockchain will democratise democracy.
