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POTUS Candidate Yang Wants Blockchain Voting Despite Security Flaws

Anja van Oosterhout | Aug 21, 2019 | 08:00

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Blockchain voting is an essential upgrade to US elections, 2020 presidential candidate Andrew Yang has said.

Yang: Standing In Line To Vote ‘Ridiculous’

Currently causing a buzz on social media, Yang’s proposal would see traditional in-person voting replaced by a Blockchain alternative.

It forms the latest in a series of policy stances for the Democrat, who has to date raised $3.5 million for his bid to enter the White House. 

In addition to Blockchain, Yang has championed cryptocurrency itself, promising to create transparent national legal frameworks to address the patchwork landscape currently in place. 

He also accepts Bitcoin donations to support his cause.

“It’s ridiculous that in 2020 we are still standing in line for hours to vote in antiquated voting booths. It is 100% technically possible to have fraud-proof voting on our mobile phones today using the blockchain,” Yang’s official campaign website quotes him as saying about the voting plans. 

“This would revolutionize true democracy and increase participation to include all Americans – those without smartphones could use the legacy system and lines would be very short.”

Easing the voting process, along with other ideas such as turning election day into a public holiday, would in turn incentivize participation and improve turnout, he suggests. 

Russian Blockchain Voting System ‘Hacked In 20 Minutes’

As Bitcoinist reported, Blockchain technology has long made its way into voting mechanisms in various jurisdictions.

Beyond the US, even Russia’s local elections have begun leveraging digital voting, in a scheme which has nonetheless outlined the need for caution when introducing disruptive technological changes. 

According to a report published this month, a French security researcher found a critical vulnerability in the voting system for Moscow’s City Duma elections. Pierrick Gaudry claimed he was able to compute the system’s private keys – and hence crack its security – in just 20 minutes.

“In the worst case scenario, the votes of all the voters using this system would be revealed to anyone as soon as they cast their vote,” he summarized.

Nonetheless, other deployments of Blockchain have seen success, including those in Switzerland and Japan last year. 

In the US, the trend goes beyond Yang, with West Virginia earlier this year confirming that military voters overseas will also use a private Blockchain-based mobile app to cast their 2020 election votes.

“Ultimately, the plan is to do it again in the presidential election,” the Secretary of State’s Office elections director and deputy legal counsel Donald Kersey told Longhash. 

“We would love for this to become a part of West Virginia’s voting.”

What do you think about Blockchain voting? Let us know in the comments below!

Images via Shutterstock