New Research Shows That Blockchain May Not Be The Best Platform For Voting

According to three researchers from the Initiative for Cryptocurrencies and Contracts (IC3), the blockchain technology may not be the perfect way to change the internet voting sector for the better.

In the latest crypto news, we have a new research that was originally put in an article that was published by Business Insider, where the three scholars argue that while blockchain technology might revolutionize other industries, internet voting might be a sector that won’t benefit from the technology at all – and in fact, could even be harmed by it.

In their report, the researchers primarily focus on the importance of blockchain technology and its ‘believed’ effects on Internet voting. Even though everyone knows that blockchain has a potential to revolutionize everything from logistics to retail to land ownership rights (etc.), the nature of blockchain means that one would naturally consider the fact that elections might be less susceptible to fraud if the technology is being implemented.

As the researchers say, the basic issues with internet voting cannot be addressed – even by the blockchain. Even though voting from a smartphone seems like a world we all want to live in, many cybersecurity experts noted that this may be much more complicated than one might believe.

The key takeaway from this research summed up to the following:

“The fact that blockchain is so secure might actually work against it. While it might sound counterintuitive, consider this: just because the blockchain is secure, that certainly doesn’t mean that the computing device used to vote in the election is hack-proof. If a phone is infected with malware that switches your vote at the last minute, the blockchain will record the vote safely, but it will obviously not be the right vote. As a result, the entire election could be compromised in this manner.”

The possibility of vote buying and its evolution to another level is also big and should not be downplayed as there have been elections where votes have been influenced for less than the cost of one tank of gas.