The current American political climate has made voting particularly topical this month, with the COVID-19 pandemic making in-person voting a daunting and even deadly task. While Estonia has supported electronic voting since 2005, other nations are increasingly tempted to explore alternative solutions, even Blockchain and distributed ledger technology (DLT). However, a recent draft study titled ‘Going from Bad to Worse: From Internet Voting to Blockchain Voting’ written by technology experts from MIT and Harvard, recommends the opposite.
In regards to just electronic voting, these systems are seen as extremely vulnerable, for example through system attacks or device exploitations. This is where a bad actor modifies hardware, software, or any other equipment to access the system or its information. In a voting environment, these actors may have total control over the voting systems and user interactions. Attacks can be extremely cheap to execute and scalable, and so can be used many times once developed. Most importantly, these can be executed in an almost entirely undetectable manner.
This is where one might think the security capabilities of Blockchain and DLT could solve the problem. But Blockchain poses multiple issues on its own.
Article continues …
Want the full story? Pro subscribers get complete articles, exclusive industry analysis, and early access to legislative updates that keep you ahead of the competition. Join the professionals who are choosing deeper insights over surface level news.
