Patrick Guess-David, founder and CEO of Valuetainment, says blockchain can enormously enhance voting programs all over the world.
With the world altering a lot amid synthetic intelligence (AI), blockchain and Bitcoin, Guess-David wonders if new expertise is what the world wants to enhance the outdated voting course of. It’s not solely in order to enhance voting programs when it comes to transparency and accessibility, however to additionally get extra folks to develop confidence in these elections and their outcomes.
The entrepreneur shared his ideas in a YouTube video. Highlighting blockchain as “a shared immutable ledger that facilitates the method of recording transactions and monitoring property in a enterprise community,” Guess-David says these options are what makes the expertise appropriate for software in blockchain voting.
U.S. states have piloted blockchain voting
To be honest, the difficulty of blockchain expertise and voting isn’t a brand new subject. Researchers and specialists have beforehand expounded on how international locations can combine this to higher impact. This has occurred amid broader integration throughout nearly each side of human life, from schooling, provide chains, well being and agriculture.
It’s this progress that has seen some U.S. states pilot blockchain voting programs.
As an example, West Virginia grew to become the primary U.S. state to make use of blockchain voting via a pilot for federal elections. A publicly verifiable ledger that also maintains the anonymity of voters is vital to this push for blockchain expertise.
In his view, Guess-David thinks that is the way in which to go.
Apart from a decentralized ledger that information votes, immutability means every cryptographically signed vote “can’t be altered with out detection.”
Aside from West Virginia, different U.S. states which have piloted blockchain voting programs are Utah, Colorado, and Oregon.
“In Denver, Colorado, one of many pilot packages allowed abroad voters and lively responsibility army personnel to vote for Municipal elections via a blockchain-based smartphone app,” Guess-David famous.
A voter in Utah additionally grew to become the primary particular person to vote for president on the blockchain. In the meantime, blockchain-based voting apps have labored in Switzerland, Japan, Brazil, South Korea and Russia.
Points with blockchain voting
Whereas he champions using blockchain to permit for transparency and accessibility in elections, Guess-David notes that implementation of the expertise does face some challenges.
Critics have outlined considerations resembling technical and safety points, together with scalability and cyber-attacks. There are additionally authorized and regulatory hurdles, significantly round voter anonymity and privateness. U.S. states which have expressed considerations and are uncomfortable with the system embrace New York, California, and Texas.
However with belief within the U.S. authorities having gone down from 73% in 1958 to about 16% at this time, it is perhaps the brand new expertise that brings youthful technology onboard.