Blockchain, a solution for a trustworthy election results
THE bitcoin enjoyed a phenomenal rise in value in the last 12 months, peaking close to a million pesos about two weeks ago. Its price now hovers around P700,000. Bitcoin’s value has been following an exponential trend and has been setting new highs after encountering price corrections.
Financial and investment prospectors, managers and advisers have taken notice and have since been studying the investment potential of this cryptocurrency. The world’s currency regulators have also taken notice and some have started to issue rules that govern the trading of cryptocurrencies, paving the way to potential trading between fiat currencies and cryptocurrencies.
What’s driving the interest is the underlying technology that supports cryptocurrencies – the blockchain technology. The technology is seen having the potential to establish systems where trust and security are at its core. To participants in a system built on blockchain technology, a transaction can be fully transparent, the identity of the party who added a integrity of the transaction added in a block has been preserved. Blockchain has been simply described as a distributed ledger that is open to everyone and updated independently by participants rather than by a central authority.
The operating concept and actual implementation and use of existing technologies have led technologists to look into developing systems where immutable ledgers or records of transactions are necessary.
The promise that blockchain technology brings was discussed quite extensively at a recent forum. Among the cases presented were peso cryptocurrency, self-sovereign ID, electronic notarization, business registry and electronic voting.
Blockchain and electronic voting An idea worth exploring
Elections are not a simple exercise where one goes to the polling center to cast his vote. There is a need to establish a voter’s identity and qualifications through the process of voter registration. When the voter presents himself to the election officer on the day of the elections, his identity again needs to be verified and authenticated. Only then would a citizen be able to exercise his constitutionally guaranteed right to elect his choices for the country’s next leaders. Then, of course, there is the need to count the votes and publish the results all under strictly secured processes. At the core of an electoral exercise is identity verification and security, as well as the publication of trustworthy results.
How can blockchain technology be used in Philippine elections? Even with the automation of Phil- ippine elections, the integrity of the results of the vote counts has always been raised as an issue. It has been said that there are no losers in the elections, only winners and those who have been cheated. So, the question really is, how can the results of the vote counts be secured and, thus, be trusted? Blockchain technology seems to provide the answer.
Following the close of voting, the votes are counted and a voting precinct report is generated. The vote count results then go through a series of consolidation through a hierarchy, or what is commonly referred to as the ladderized manner of vote consolidation – voting precinct results are consolidated at the city- district level, which are then passed on to the city level for consolidation. Other voting precinct results are passed on directly to the city, which are not divided into districts and municipalities for consolidation. These results are then passed on to provincial districts and eventually to the provincial consolidation levels. Finally, it reaches the national consolidation process. At each level of the consolidation, winners of the voting are proclaimed.
Using blockchain technology, each report at each level can be recorded as a transaction. Recorded with the transaction are other relevant data, as well as the identities of the participants – the members of the Board of Election Inspectors and members of the Board of Canvassers who shall sign the reports digitally. This will create an immutable record of election results at all levels of consolidation. The distributed blockchain ledgers are updated automatically so that all stakeholders with copies of the ledgers are kept updated.
Critical to establishing trust in the consolidated results is the immutability of the vote record. Blockchain technology can be used to record the votes of each voter. But at this level the recording of the voter’s vote must be done independently of the voter identity. The system must be designed in such a manner that would allow independent verification and authentication of the identity of the voter, and for such identity to be accepted by the voting system, which should have the capability to determine if the voter is who he claims to be.
After casting his vote, the voter’s vote would be recorded into the blockchain- based vote ledger system, pursuant to the authority of the voter. It is at this point where the identity of the voter would not be recorded with the vote transaction to ensure that the vote record could not be traced to the voter. At vote-counting time, each transaction would simply be decrypted and the votes counted.
Blockchain technology appears to offer a good technology solution for automated elections in the Philippines. But it has to be coupled with the necessary infrastructure for results transmission. Perhaps, the government’s promise of an improved internet connection in the country in the next few years will turn this promise into reality.