USPS Files Patent for a Blockchain-Based Voting System
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USPS Files Patent for a Blockchain-Based Voting System
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Re: USPS Files Patent for a Blockchain-Based Voting System
#2All blockchain (and electronic for that matter) voting systems are inherently bad because they are not easy to verify.
Nothing beats pen and paper in verifiability and ease of use. If done right with many eyes on the ballots, manipulation requires thousands of co-conspirators. The only downside is the slow speed.
Re: USPS Files Patent for a Blockchain-Based Voting System
#3FFS. What's next, a crowdsourcing campaign?
How about they stop losing money and subsidizing Amazon?
Re: USPS Files Patent for a Blockchain-Based Voting System
#4wow what a politically relevant thing to do. I'm sure this has nothing to do with partisan politics and is purely a technologically interesting development. I will likely dig deeper into this new groundbreaking technology.
Re: USPS Files Patent for a Blockchain-Based Voting System
#5My whole startup is built on blockchain, and I'm an Estonian e-Resident (Estonia allows their citizens to vote digitally), so I find blockchain voting fascinating. That said, there are some problems with it. This Tom Scott video explains why: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LkH2r-sNjQs.
But this is a very cool idea: combining the USPS vote-by-mail infrastructure with a blockchain layer that sits on top, used mainly to provide anonymous provenance. We'll see if this ever gets implemented, but I think it's a great example of the non-hype uses for blockchains being explored.
Re: USPS Files Patent for a Blockchain-Based Voting System
#6Electronic voting is a terrible idea.
Attacks on paper & pen ballot systems are much, much harder to scale.
Here's Tom Scott with a great explanation of the basics. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LkH2r-sNjQs
Re: USPS Files Patent for a Blockchain-Based Voting System
#7Obligatory xkcd: https://xkcd.com/2030/
Re: USPS Files Patent for a Blockchain-Based Voting System
#8My whole startup is built on blockchain, and I'm an Estonian e-Resident (Estonia allows their citizens to vote digitally), so I find blockchain voting fascinating. That said, there are some problems with it. This Tom Scott video explains why: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LkH2r-sNjQs . But this is a very cool idea: combining the USPS vote-by-mail infrastructure with a blockchain layer that sits on top, used mainly…
Oh cool, not related to the article directly but I m off to Estonia and working on a blockchain (tezos) voting system and community if interested : www.electis.io
Re: USPS Files Patent for a Blockchain-Based Voting System
#9All blockchain (and electronic for that matter) voting systems are inherently bad because they are not easy to verify. Nothing beats pen and paper in verifiability and ease of use. If done right with many eyes on the ballots, manipulation requires thousands of co-conspirators. The only downside is the slow speed.
Some people also argue that the pen and paper method, by not being instant, drive some extra engagement in the political process, so could be seen as another positive rather than a downside — coverage of vote counting can go on for hours (or days) and it's the one time that democracy is visibly "exciting".
This feels like it has a ring of truth to it, but then personally I'm interested in politics so maybe that's a self selection bias — would be interesting if there was a formal study on this.
Re: USPS Files Patent for a Blockchain-Based Voting System
#10All blockchain (and electronic for that matter) voting systems are inherently bad because they are not easy to verify. Nothing beats pen and paper in verifiability and ease of use. If done right with many eyes on the ballots, manipulation requires thousands of co-conspirators. The only downside is the slow speed.
You give one citizen one vote on the chain. They can personally verify that their vote was counted because the chain is visible. Counts can't be rigged because the entire chain is public. Voters can only vote by going to a physical location where they use a multi-key signature, one by the voter, and one by the local polling station, avoiding people selling off their keys. This is anonymous, traceable, and the vote can't be altered.