This little county in Africa holds worlds first Blockchain-powered election!
Cue March 2018, which will go down as a landmark occasion when Sierra Leone held its first presidential election using a blockchain startup company called Agora.
The use of this kind of technology is truly a day of reckoning as it brings in a whole new stance to how elections can be carried out without the threat of fraud.
Information on blockchain exists within a database that is always being updated, and since blockchain is decentralized the information isn’t stored in a single location but rather across an entire network of nodes, who each have the exact same information.
The great thing about using blockchain technology is the fact that, to the voter's eyes it was still the same as any other of the previous elections that took place. The citizens went to the polling stations and provided the necessary documentation, and they were able to cast their votes out of 16 candidates.
When all the votes were cast, the COO of the Swiss startup Agora released a statement about how it was able to manually record the votes on its own blockchain. However, the main difference between a blockchain of this caliber and one of a cryptocurrency is that only persons who have the intended rights to validate transactions can do so. Also, once all the votes were verified by the authorized parties it meant that anyone could see the results. When we relate back to Sierra Leone and the authorized people involved in the election, the people involved were the University of Freiburg, EPFL, and Agora, as well as The Red Cross.
Could we see blockchain technology revolutionize election voting in areas where there are corruption and violence? Who knows, but Sierra Leone has an unfortunate history of violence when it comes to elections as well as government corruption, so maybe blockchain is a step in the right direction to help the country elect genuine winners. Blockchain technology will certainly make election voting a lot fairer, and Sierra Leone is the perfect testing ground for this sort of scenario.
Chief Operating Officer of Agora.
“A country like Sierra Leone can ultimately minimize a lot of the fall-out of a highly contentious election by using software like this,”
Even though the votes were still carried out on paper, Agora has plans to eventually phase out paper ballots which would mean people would have to cast a vote through the likes of software on mobile phones or computers. Not only will this make voting easier and fairer, but it will also reduce the risk of corruption during elections.
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It is really a big wow! And Sierra Leonne to start with this. I know it will go well. We are on innovative era and it is time for change and to improve the way of electing in countries. But with the help of Blockchain, it is really a big big step!
Indeed! It's exciting to see how it will develop overtime!
Sierra Leone is way ahead of developed nations in terms of transparency now. There are no excuses anymore, they are terrified.
This is very crucial tech. to deal with corrupt government. This made me think about supporting a blockchain election in my country too(Philippines). To make sure there's no corruption and cheat election.
Yes, I do think it is a better system once we have a vetting system in place to prevent citizens from having multiple accounts/ votes. Many elections all around the globe are obviously a cheat. This way it takes the trust out of government and/or officials and leave it to an opensource ledger.
No more questioning as to whether this or that region really did tally that many votes.
Also will prevent counting more votes then there are voters! ha!
I am interested as to what you and other people think of your current leader? Would he win in a transparent Blockchain based election? After this news, any government that doesn't offer a free and transparent election based on the Blockchain is obviously corrupt, what have they get to hide?
He would definitely not win. haha'~ But with all of the selected candidates being so terrible. I don't think it would really impact much. Unless it was truly open to anyone, (Much like what Iceland did, Where anyone can run for any office.)
Wow ok, I thought he had a fair amount of support at home. Abroad he has a lot of admirers but I guess they don't have to live under his rule. Perhaps Iceland is pioneering decentralised politics?
You can talk with me about this sometime. My team can provide e.g. the software for that.
Insane... hopefully this is a foot through the door kinda deal and the small country sets an example for all the large ones
Right, Baby steps.. .
Gotta start somewhere. ^.^
It is so brave for their gov to take the first step!
Hopefully more govs will follow them too , and help eliminate corruption and fraud!!
This is fantastic news. I had a very interesting talk with one of the founders of a similar startup recently on the use cases of blockchain in political climates such as these. I genuinely see a future where the risks of violence at polling stations will be reduced as people probably won't have to go to polling stations anymore.
For now, though, it would be interesting to learn how Agora mitigates the risk of a vote being changed on account of the validation channels. For example, the votes are collected and ready to be validated. What are the risks of the votes being changed prior to validation?
Great read.
Interesting, Yes I'm also curious as to how Agora does this and medicates its risk of fraud.
As with any system, there's always an exploit. But I think its definitely a step in the right direction!
Damn!! I always knew this would be an awesome application for blockchain. It’s a shame I’m too lazy/ignorant to have pulled it off myself!
Right! Its been talked about for sometime now but it's nice to see it actually play out in action.
It's perfect for a heavily corrupt political climate such as minor countries in Africa.
i am attempting to pioneer a blockchain application that has yet to be implemented. thankfully I have the Steemit community to help, because I am also 'too lazy and ignorant to pull it off myself!'
I am proposing a blockchain app that allows neighborhoods to allocate municipal bonds in the form of crypto to each resident in the community, who then create and vote on proposals for neighborhood improvement projects (the winning proposal would then use the crypto to execute the project, sort of like GoFundMe). I would love your input and feedback since I have no idea what I am doing but I believe blockchain will be the future of community building.
https://steemit.com/blockchain/@tidnull/ut-arlington-s-engineering-challenge-my-proposal-rough-draft
Sounds like a very cool concept. I'm a decent programmer, but sadly I know absolutely nothing about programming dapps. I've also been notoriously lazy about working on any significant projects away from the office. I'm going to follow you since I'd definitely like to see how this progresses though!
Hey, that's actually a good idea!
I think it would be easiest if it were positioned in a way where it doesn't seem like a foreign tech such as crypto. Something branded in a way where it seems to fit in with other tools the local gov already uses. Also, an influencer in local gov on your side would do wonders for it. After you have the kincks worked out with devs, thats where i'd start.
thank you very much. Figuring out who can mentor/ get us connected will be the key indeed.
I hope to post the updated version within the next couple weeks, where I address the community's feedback.
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The power of block chain not only allows you to vote anonymously, but also instantaneously. Image if day to day decisions of governments are made by every day citizens by voting in real time through block chain. This is truly revolutionary.
Big Gov will really hate it!
But the people will love its transparency!
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