Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

USPS Files Patent for a Blockchain-Based Voting System

heraldsheets.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

221–230 of 390 posts

Re: USPS Files Patent for a Blockchain-Based Voting System

#221

Post by ClumsyPilot »

bjo590 wrote: post #146
eloff wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wouldn't a blockchain voting system help here, if everyone can examine the time, place, and votes in the history, and see that all the block hashes match what's expected? That gives much stronger guarantees than paper, and while the average Joe can't verify it himself, there would be three million programmers in the US alone who easily could. Whereas with paper I can't count the votes myself, I have to trust the auth…

> That gives much stronger guarantees than paper, and while the average Joe can't verify it himself, there would be three million programmers in the US alone who easily could. I think the current US population that really understands blockchains is less than 1% of the population.

I would argue that lesss than 1% of software professionals REALLY understand blockchains.

Re: USPS Files Patent for a Blockchain-Based Voting System

#224

Post by unnouinceput »

diebeforei485 wrote: post #218

If you were creating a society on Mars, would you use a system of people lining up in-person to vote? Probably not. Rigged elections have been a thing for a very long time. The shenanigans in Belarus is only the latest example. Covid-19 will accelerate the inevitable. We're having a mail-in election this year, people will get comfortable voting from home and it's only a matter of time before people start asking why t…

Wait until people realize there is no need for intermediate people in a lot of areas that can be eliminated with direct voting. Then you'll see a lot of social distress. Current rioting is nothing compared with what's coming

Re: USPS Files Patent for a Blockchain-Based Voting System

#225

Post by cheph »

amelius wrote: post #67
sebmellen wrote: post #5

My 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…

Very nice video, though in the personally delivered sponsored message at the end he seems to be contradicting himself. Why would you still trust a password manager after seeing the video? And wouldn't it be incredibly stupid if an entire nation put their passwords in a vault controlled by some company in possibly another nation?

> Why would you still trust a password manager after seeing the video? And wouldn't it be incredibly stupid if an entire nation put their passwords in a vault controlled by some company in possibly another nation?

I think you should use a password manager, I do, and the people I know that don't keep forgetting their passwords, keep reusing them, and generally just practice horrible security.

As to which one, I would recommend an open source one like BitWarden, but they won't fund YouTube videos on important issues because they don't have the money.

I doubt Tom Scott would recommend that everyone in the world use this one password manager, and it won't happen from him endorsing it. And I think that integrity of elections are more important than the security of passwords, even though I guess they are somewhat intertwined. For important things multi factor auth should be used which won't be defeated by passwords only.

Re: USPS Files Patent for a Blockchain-Based Voting System

#227

Post by propogandist »

atlgator wrote: post #200

It's the illusion of safety. There is no facility for identity verification baked into blockchain. You have integrity for the data allowed on the chain but if you let Russian hackers write to it, it undermines the whole thing. Personally I'd rather go with a PKI system that offers non-repudiation.

what Russian hackers?

Re: USPS Files Patent for a Blockchain-Based Voting System

#228

Post by [deleted] »

singron wrote: post #213
the_snooze wrote: post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What do you consider "very very small?" Tabuation is done at the precinct level, and there are many many precincts involved in an election. Also jurisdictions can do risk-limiting audits (RLA) to spot-check that the electronic counts are in line with the results. "Following your vote" is dangerous because it opens up the possibility of at-scale voter intimidation or vote-buying. "Receipt-freeness" is a desirable prop…

Receipts (paper records received after voting) are OK as long as they don't reveal who you voted for. Confusingly, sometimes this is called "receipt-free".

[deleted]

Re: USPS Files Patent for a Blockchain-Based Voting System

#229

Post by the_snooze »

singron wrote: post #213
the_snooze wrote: post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What do you consider "very very small?" Tabuation is done at the precinct level, and there are many many precincts involved in an election. Also jurisdictions can do risk-limiting audits (RLA) to spot-check that the electronic counts are in line with the results. "Following your vote" is dangerous because it opens up the possibility of at-scale voter intimidation or vote-buying. "Receipt-freeness" is a desirable prop…

Receipts (paper records received after voting) are OK as long as they don't reveal who you voted for. Confusingly, sometimes this is called "receipt-free".

>OK as long as they don't reveal who you voted for.

Yup, an "I voted" sticker is OK. An "I voted" sticker with your ballot's serial number isn't.

Re: USPS Files Patent for a Blockchain-Based Voting System

#230

Post by stansbury »

diebeforei485 wrote: post #171
Ericson2314 wrote: post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think that's fair. I'm young enough? And thing that given our current electoral systems and shoddy educations , paper voting is definitely better. If everyone knowingly did some basic applied asymmetric key cryptography every day, and it was thought in grade school, that could change things. If we voted far more often, so that the benefit of a single compromised vote was far less, that could change things. I…

Meanwhile people have difficulty filling out paper ballots, because it's terrible UX. If you want to have a nice voting system like STV or even ranked-choice, shading ovals on paper ballots is not ideal. Sometimes it feels as though existing problems get a free pass because of tradition, but new issues (even if addressed) are scary and so the entire thing should be stopped. I think the right strategy is to pick a sta…

Iowa Democrats tried an app this year, and it was a colossal failure: https://www.npr.org/2020/02/04/802583844/what-we-know-about-...
Post reply on HN