{"id":4050,"date":"2017-01-20T10:56:24","date_gmt":"2017-01-20T09:56:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/?p=4050"},"modified":"2017-01-23T14:30:26","modified_gmt":"2017-01-23T13:30:26","slug":"verification-blockchain-voting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/en\/digital-trends\/verification-blockchain-voting","title":{"rendered":"Verification of Online Voting with Blockchain"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Our CEO Ralf M\u00fcller gave a speech at the Bitkom Academy in Frankfurt am Main about how Blockchain can help with the verification processes of online voting. We have compiled some of the most important and interesting aspects of using Blockchain technology to help improve online voting systems.<br \/>\n<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>There have always been attempts at manipulating elections and it is highly likely there always will be. The main criticisms of online elections are security and maintaining free, fair, open and tamper-free elections. Online elections, for many, represent the future of democracy. They offer the potential for increased turnout, higher accuracy and faster results. Weaknesses in online voting systems have to be addressed to ensure that verification standards and the security of digital voting systems can be improved.<\/p>\n<h3>Challenges for Online Elections<\/h3>\n<p>Digital voting presents us with various challenges in preventing vote manipulation:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Cast-as-Intended<\/strong>: to ensure that the cast votes correspond to the electorate&#8217;s choice.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Stored-as-Cast<\/strong>: to ensure that the delivered vote is correctly and anonymously stored.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Tallied-as-Cast<\/strong>: to ensure that votes in the electoral role are counted accurately.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>All these points must be safeguarded by the system and, critically, be verifiable by the voter. One potential way to meet these requirements is blockchain. Blockchain systems are considered to be particularly safe and verifiable because they implement multi-stage safety concepts.<\/p>\n<h3>Safety Levels of the Blockchain System:<\/h3>\n<ol>\n<li>In blockchain systems, data is not sent from a central database, but via several nodes (computers). Blockchains are therefore decentrally organised. Decentralised organisation increases the security of the transaction as there is no central point of attack.<\/li>\n<li>Each transaction made with blockchain receives a public key, making it identifiable. In addition, it is signed with a secret private key. The public key allows each participant to view the transaction.<\/li>\n<li>The integrity of the data is guaranteed by so-called &#8220;miners&#8221;. These are, for example, people who verify that transactions have proceeded as intended.<\/li>\n<li>Miners lock the data packages after a successful check with a hash (a checksum).<\/li>\n<li>The hash can only be generated if the previous data block is correct and has a hash.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/en\/electoral-research\/interview-blockchain-online-voting\">You can find out more about the use of blockchain in online elections here.<\/a><\/p>\n<h3>Better verification with blockchain<\/h3>\n<p>The POLYAS voting system is not unlike a blockchain because of its subsystems, which constantly check one another. The verifiability of the votes, however, can be improved by blockchain. Blockchain could provide voters with the ability to check that their own votes were registered correctly, giving a significant boost to security.<\/p>\n<p>A public key is not available in online elections, as the secrecy of the ballot has to be maintained. Blockchain could have another answer for this problem by using a validator, which maintains the anonymity of the voter. A generated verification code would help the voter check whether their vote had been counted correctly while keeping the ballot box secret.<\/p>\n<p>Similarly, a miner cannot be used for checking the integrity of votes. Decentralised information management must be used instead. It is important to make sure that no one subsystem has all the information of the election. Voting information is instead distributed across many subsystems. In this way, both the secret of the ballot and the verifiability of the election are attainable.<\/p>\n<p>Another possible system would be to use &#8220;bulletin boards&#8221; on which the vote transactions can be viewed. The bulletin boards would be public and would thus also fulfil the need for transparency.<\/p>\n<p>There are different ways to make online choices safer and more transparent to the public. It is important to think about different methods in order to gain more accurate and efficient democratic processes fit for the 21st century. That is why at POLYAS we are researching ways to make our system more transparent and secure through the use of blockchain and bulletin boards.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.polyas.com\/about-polyas\/research\">You can find out more about research at POLYAS here<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Our CEO Ralf M\u00fcller gave a speech at the Bitkom Academy in Frankfurt am Main about how Blockchain can help with the verification processes of online voting. We have compiled some of the most important and interesting aspects of using Blockchain technology to help improve online voting systems.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":274,"featured_media":2789,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_eb_attr":"","ub_ctt_via":"","spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[736],"tags":[899,975,1048,1050,897],"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/Digital-News.png","author_info":{"display_name":"Charles Harding","author_link":"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/author\/c-harding"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v19.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Better Verification of Online Voting with Blockchain<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Online Voting is often criticised over security issues. Could Blockchain help the verification process? Read more about Blockchain and Online voting!\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/en\/digital-trends\/verification-blockchain-voting\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"de_DE\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Better Verification of Online Voting with Blockchain\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Online Voting is often criticised over security issues. Could Blockchain help the verification process? 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POLYAS relies on the same technology on a smaller scale but is also in the process of researching an entire election system designed around decentralised Blockchain technology. We interviewed\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Electoral research&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"Blockchain","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Blockchain-Polyas.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":9505,"url":"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/en\/polyas\/bulletin-boards-instead-of-blockchain","url_meta":{"origin":4050,"position":1},"title":"Bulletin boards instead of blockchain: E-voting with POLYAS","date":"19\/05\/2021","format":false,"excerpt":"The blockchain encryption technology provides the trust that people need in the virtual currency Bitcoin. But does using blockchain make sense for e-voting too? POLYAS relies on a similar but more flexible solution: the bulletin board. This post explains the reasons behind this decision. In recent years, the value of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;About POLYAS&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"Blockchain vs Bulletin Boards","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/Blockchain-vs-Bulletin-Boards.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3619,"url":"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/en\/electoral-research\/interview-blockchain-online-voting","url_meta":{"origin":4050,"position":2},"title":"Interview: Blockchain and online voting &#8211; A secure combination","date":"18\/11\/2016","format":false,"excerpt":"asked...\u00a0I talked to Mr. Tomasz Truderung, the Head of the POLYAS research team about the use of blockchain and how the system could help to make online voting even more secure. What is Blockchain and what is the motivation to use it? Nowadays, we do so many things digitally. We\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Electoral research&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"Blockchain and online voting a safe combination","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/Blockchain_Interview.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5746,"url":"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/en\/digital-democracy\/postal-elections-carbon-footprint","url_meta":{"origin":4050,"position":3},"title":"How Online Elections Help Reduce your Carbon Footprint","date":"28\/09\/2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Elections are not only expensive but often have a significant carbon footprint. Learn about how to reduce the environmental costs of your next election by switching from postal to online elections. Nearly all institutions have some level of democracy built into them, from cooperatives and unions to companies and universities\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Digital Democracy&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"Reduce your carbon footprint with online elections","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/Postal-online-elections-Carbon-footprint.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":8531,"url":"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/en\/polyas\/digital-voting-in-politics","url_meta":{"origin":4050,"position":4},"title":"Digital voting in politics: POLYAS and the CDU party conference","date":"16\/02\/2021","format":false,"excerpt":"The CDU implemented the first fully digital national party conference and set new standards with digital voting. This was the first time that POLYAS Live Voting was used to help the 1,001 delegates conduct a secure vote from the comfort of their homes. Being able to enhance the CDU party\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;About POLYAS&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"Digital Voting with POLYAS","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/POLYAS-Digital-Voting-in-Politics.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":9425,"url":"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/en\/polyas\/virtual-voting-despite-corona-potential-for-political-parties","url_meta":{"origin":4050,"position":5},"title":"Virtual voting despite Corona \u2013 potential for political parties","date":"10\/03\/2021","format":false,"excerpt":"2021 is a super election year. Elections are taking place in seven federal states and the general election is also taking place at the end of September. But how can the parties elect their candidates contact-free during a global pandemic? 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