{"id":304,"date":"2019-04-24T10:33:48","date_gmt":"2019-04-24T10:33:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.fuel4media.com\/blog\/?p=304"},"modified":"2019-04-25T11:34:57","modified_gmt":"2019-04-25T11:34:57","slug":"blockchain-technology-voting-secure-election","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fuel4media.com\/blog\/blockchain-technology-voting-secure-election\/","title":{"rendered":"Blockchain Technology in Voting for Secure Election"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"bsf_rt_marker\"><\/div><p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">Why do we need to vote? By voting, we have the power to decide on the quality of life we want for ourselves and for the coming generations.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">From public infrastructure, minimum wage to funding important missions,voting helps us to select the best candidate for our nation. The present voting systems in most countries are inefficient and demand a decentralized process for secure election that is open, fair and independently verifiable. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">One such technology that can become a game changer for the voting process is blockchain. This blog highlights how we can use blockchain in voting for secure election and how it can make the entire process highly secure and robust.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\"><strong>Let\u2019s start with the basics first. What is a blockchain?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/fuel4media.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/linkndin1.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-305 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/fuel4media.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/linkndin1.jpg\" alt=\"Blockchain Technology in Voting\" width=\"810\" height=\"400\" srcset=\"https:\/\/fuel4media.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/linkndin1.jpg 810w, https:\/\/fuel4media.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/linkndin1-300x148.jpg 300w, https:\/\/fuel4media.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/linkndin1-768x379.jpg 768w, https:\/\/fuel4media.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/linkndin1-732x361.jpg 732w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 810px) 100vw, 810px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">Blockchain technology is a public ledger that records and stores all transactions. These transactions are recorded in a block and when the block is completed as more transactions are carried out, it is added in chronological order to the blockchain. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">All the blocks are secured and bound to each other using cryptographic principles. A block has three parts:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">Information about transactions, such as the date, time, and amount.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">Information about who is participating in transactions.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">A unique code called a \u201chash\u201d that separates it from other blocks.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\"><strong>How to use blockchain in voting?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\"><strong>\u00a0<\/strong>Voting with blockchain will eliminate election fraud and boost transparency. Each vote would be stored as a block on the blockchain, making it impossible for anyone to tamper them. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">The blockchain technology will also reduce the personnel needed to conduct an election and offer instant results for an election.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\"><strong>Blockchain Voting System: Four Parts<\/strong><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\"><strong>1)<\/strong> User with a smartphone or any device with a front camera. The device must have an internet connection to register and vote.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\"><strong>2)<\/strong> An Authentication Server which is a kind of web server with backend database of all the eligible voters in a country. This server will allow users to create account after they register. The information needed to register includes their unique identity number (such as Aadhaar Card ID or Voter ID in India), postal address, email address and phone number (optional). A picture or small video of the user\u2019s face will also be taken to confirm verification. The information of each user will act as a transaction. An automated miner will verify the transaction and will send confirmation to the user. The user then can create an account with a username and password of their choice on the AS server.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\"><strong>3)<\/strong> An Arbitration Server, which will consist of national, constituency and local nodes, is required to connect a user and the blockchain voting system.On the voting day, the users can login to their account created on the AS server through their mobile device. This server will verify the user\u2019s identity as soon as they login using a front-facing camera in a device.The server will assign a public key to each user and assign the same amount of digital tokens to all eligible voters.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">The user will use that token along with their private key to cast vote so that their votes remain a secret. The encrypted token will be sent to the local node. Each local node will communicate with the other local nodes under the associated constituency node.The constituency node will collect information from the associated local nodes and send to a national node. All national nodes can communicate with each other for voting counting process. Each node is required to follow the smart contract to verify the vote and add it to a chain of blocks on a node.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\"><strong>4)<\/strong> Each voter will use their tokens to vote for a candidate. During the voting counting process, miners of national nodes will verify and count the token numbers. A candidate with the highest amount of tokens will win the election.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">Since everything in a blockchain is public and distribute, each associated user can see if their vote has been counted for their candidate. The private keys used by voters protect their anonymity in voting while the public keys assigned to each voter account can be mapped to see if the votes have been counted fairly.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\"><strong>Use of Blockchain Cryptographic Functions in Voting<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\"><strong>Hashes: <\/strong>Hashes are mathematical functions that assign a set of numbers and letters to the output based on the input. For instance, the word \u201celection\u201d if hashed using SHA-256 hashing algorithm, it will be written as c7a19845b9e9de079260094d79525957. If installed in electronic voting machines, hashing can identify malicious modifications to the software or when software is corrupted.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\"><strong>Digital Signatures:<\/strong> They are also mathematical functions like cryptographic hashes and help to identify who sent a message or file. It will help to eliminate voting frauds when one people cast too many votes or try to tamper the votes in an EVM.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\"><strong>Mix-Nets:<\/strong> They only take encrypted data and then re-encrypt them to mix the order in which it is stored. When someone tries to manipulate votes, the re-arranged vote orders will not match with the manipulated ones on the nodes. The blockchain system will quickly alert auditing personnel about the manipulation.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\"><strong>Homomorphic Cryptography<\/strong>: It allows the votes in an electronic ballot machine to be tabulated while still encrypted, eliminating the way to identify who voted for whom. These tabulated votes can then be posted on public channels to verify the outcome of the election.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\"><strong>Encryption and Decryption<\/strong>: Encryption obscures any information and decryption reverses this process. Keys are the secret piece of information necessary to encrypt and decrypt data.\u00a0When casting an iVote, the value of the vote can be encrypted using an encryption key and only authorized vote counting officer can decrypt encrypted data.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\"><strong>Benefits of using <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fuel4media.com\/blockchain-development-company.php\">blockchain technology<\/a> in voting<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\"><strong>\u00a0<\/strong>Blockchain is immutable. No one can delete votes or vote twice, because everything is encrypted and verified at each level, thereby bringing transparency to the voting process.<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">Conducting election on a blockchain system is safer and efficient because counting results will not take days but minutes. It will also remove human errors in counting EVM votes or paper ballots.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\"><strong>Conclusion<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\"><strong>\u00a0<\/strong>With elections going on in India and approaching in the world\u2019s biggest democratic countries like the US and the UK, blockchain can prove beneficial to prevent any manipulation or fraud in the election process as we have seen during the 2016 US election. The blockchain technology already exists and it is the time to implement it for hosting elections on this innovative technology.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">Blockchain can be used to track voting data, register and verify voters and verify news sources to avoid fake ones from affecting people\u2019s sentiments. Blockchain is sure to make the voting process more transparent, efficient, and secure.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Why do we need to vote? By voting, we have the power to decide on the quality of life we want for ourselves and for the coming generations.\u00a0 From public infrastructure, minimum wage to funding important missions,voting helps us to select the best candidate for our nation. The present voting systems in most countries are [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[24],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fuel4media.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/304"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fuel4media.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fuel4media.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fuel4media.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fuel4media.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=304"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/fuel4media.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/304\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":309,"href":"https:\/\/fuel4media.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/304\/revisions\/309"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fuel4media.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=304"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fuel4media.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=304"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fuel4media.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=304"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}