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Secure Voting Solution Unites Bitcoin Blockchain and Paper Ballots

Last Updated March 4, 2021 4:50 PM
Samburaj Das
Last Updated March 4, 2021 4:50 PM

 Bitcoin ATM-developer and blockchain-tech firm Blockchain Technologies Corp (BTC) has revealed that it is developing a tamper-resistant voting machine dubbed “VoteWatcher.”

Blockchain Technologies Logo

New York-based Blockchain Technologies Corp., a blockchain- and bitcoin-centric firm and startup accelerator has revealed that it is currently working on a blockchain voting machine that it deems will be “tamper-resistant”.

The machine, dubbed “VoteWatcher”, is aimed at ensuring two core functionalities of a voting process. According to the firm, they are:

  • To ensure that the voting machine correctly captures the voter’s intent.
  • To safeguard voters’ trust that their votes are being counted correctly.

While advances in voting technology have seen paperless voting stations, with its critics , have existed since the turn of the millennium , Blockchain Technologies Corp., is bringing back paper in its solution for a tamper-proof voting system.

Paper ballots are “the only way to ensure a secure and accurate election”, read the announcement  from the industry firm.

“What happens when non-technical people want to audit an election conducted using paperless electronic voting machines?” argued Nick Spanos, Blockchain Technologies Corp CEO.

He added:

All you can audit is the code the machine used to calculate the results. There is no original record of the votes cast. Paper ballots are the only way to do a real re-count for the general public.

Bitcoin motherboard

Pillaring paper ballots as the “foundation” of its VoteWatcher system, the process will see paper ballots fed through a scanner which will record voters’ choices during the vote. The scanned data, along with a hash of the ballot’s image is then uploaded to the blockchain to safeguard it from tampering.

While underlining that the bitcoin blockchain brings about a “whole new paradigm of data integrity”, the company adds that original paper ballots turned in by voters will ultimately remain the document of record in the event of a recount.

Blockchain technologies Corp has experience in providing solutions for elections, having conducted them at Libertarian Party state conventions in Texas and New York, with success.

According to previous reports, the company plans on completing at least one of its voting solutions, dubbed VoteUnit, before the 2016 presidential elections.

Images from Shutterstock and BTC.