{"id":6397,"date":"2021-11-11T16:23:00","date_gmt":"2021-11-11T15:23:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/affidaty.io\/blog\/?p=6397"},"modified":"2023-04-18T16:24:16","modified_gmt":"2023-04-18T14:24:16","slug":"blockchain-elections","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/affidaty.io\/blog\/en\/2021\/11\/blockchain-elections\/","title":{"rendered":"Blockchain and elections: where are we at?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-intro-the-ledger\">Intro &#8211; The <strong>Ledger<\/strong>.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The word blockchain literally means &#8220;chains of blocks&#8221;: it is a distributed digital <strong>ledger<\/strong> technology (D.L.T.).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Technically, it is defined as a &#8220;system for recording and storing data on which consensus can be reached in a decentralized manner, since transaction blocks can only be added, but never modified or deleted.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The study conducted by Philip Boucher for the European Parliament&#8217;s Research Service (EPRS) in 2017, aimed at making the concept of blockchain understandable to everyone, uses the example of the <strong>ledger<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Banks have always used<strong> ledgers<\/strong> to record accounting transactions, and any changes to the transaction records are directly managed by the bank itself, which acts as a central authority.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Through <strong>ledger<\/strong> entries, the legitimacy of a money movement can be verified at any time, or it can be checked that the same amount is not spent twice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The user trusts the bank and relies on the fact that it manages the <strong>ledger<\/strong> and carries out adequate and strict control of the transactions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">According to Philip Boucher&#8217;s analysis, <strong>ledgers<\/strong> are:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Centralized, as there is an intermediary (the bank), whom users trust and who has full control over the system, acting as a mediator in every transaction;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Closed-box, as the <strong>ledger<\/strong>&#8216;s operation and the data it contains are not fully visible to its users.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The blockchain essentially offers the same functions as a <strong>ledger<\/strong>, but there is no central intermediary that performs the checks, as the &#8220;<strong>ledger<\/strong>&#8221; is essentially decentralized: the users of the blockchain self-check the <strong>ledger<\/strong>, as without their consent no block can be modified.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The data recorded on the blockchain is aggregated into blocks, and each block is joined to the one that precedes it with a kind of &#8220;chain&#8221; that allows for subsequent blocks to be added, with new data relative to those chronologically preceding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The data contained in the blocks is immutable: to change them, one would have to go backwards and have the consent of the creators of the previous nodes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In plain terms, it is a transparent, immutable, unchangeable registry where lists of transactions are recorded; not surprisingly, the blockchain is used in the field of digital currencies (e.g. Bitcoin) to record transactions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Blockchains are distinguished as public (permissionless) and private (permissioned).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In permissionless blockchain, no authorization is required to access the registered data, execute transactions, or validate them by creating new blocks; famous examples of public blockchains are Bitcoin and Ethereum.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In permissioned blockchain, only identified and authorized participants can perform data writing and transaction validation operations; the information, however, remains visible to everyone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Uses: public, private elections, associations, orders&#8230;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The uses of blockchain are potentially numerous: currencies, digital content, patents, smart contracts, supply chains, elections. Under this last aspect, we try to analyze the state of the art.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Elections in states, as a rule, are carried out using paper methods, both at the administrative and regional or local level, except for rare exceptions of <strong>electronic voting<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In Italy, the electoral process is particularly rigid and cumbersome: ballots must have particular requirements, their authentication and validation occur according to the double system of the scrutineer&#8217;s signature and the stamp of the electoral section, the scrutiny of the ballots occurs by hand, as does the annotation of valid votes and blank and null ballots, with the risk of fraud always lurking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Often even in ordinary systems and associations &#8211; especially small territorial realities &#8211; or in companies, voting takes place using paper methods, with endless delays in verifying the correctness of the scrutiny operations; it is a different story for medium-large realities, where <strong>electronic voting<\/strong> is now consolidated: in the world of law, for example, the vote during the national congress of lawyers, which is the assembly where the representatives of all lawyers in Italy meet, has been carried out for years using electronic methods.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The vote in professional orders is subject to the discipline dictated by the supervising Ministries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Ministry of Justice performs supervisory functions on the following orders:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Psychologists (only during the election phase, as actual surveillance is conducted by the Ministry of Health),<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>stockbrokers (Law No. 402\/62),<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>agronomists and forestry doctors (Law No. 3\/76),<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>agricultural technicians and graduate agricultural technicians (Law No. 251\/86),<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>architects, planners, landscapers, and conservators (Law No. 1395\/23, Royal Decree No. 2537\/25, Presidential Decree No. 328\/2001),<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>social workers (Law No. 84\/93),<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>actuaries (Law No. 194\/42),<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>lawyers (Royal Decree-Law No. 1578\/33),<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>labor consultants (in agreement with the Minister of Labor and Social Security),<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>chartered accountants and accounting experts (Legislative Decree No. 139\/2005),<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>geologists (Law No. 2\/63),<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>surveyors (Royal Decree No. 274\/29),<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>journalists (Law No. 69\/63),<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>engineers (Law No. 1395\/23, Royal Decree No. 2537\/25, Presidential Decree No. 328\/2001),<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>notaries (Law No. 89\/13),<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>food technologists (Law No. 59\/94),<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>agricultural experts and graduate agricultural experts (Law No. 343\/68),<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>industrial experts and graduate industrial experts (Royal Decree No. 275\/29).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The following orders, instead, are subject to surveillance by the Ministry of Health:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Surgeons and Dentists,<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Veterinarians,<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Pharmacists,<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Nursing professions FNOPI,<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Midwifery profession FNOPO,<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>TSRM and technical, rehabilitation and prevention health professions,<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Psychologists,<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Biologists,<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Chemists and physicists.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Each order is divided into a national council and territorial branches, all subject to first or second-level elections, which usually take place with ordinary paper-based methods (especially in territorial or small-scale realities) or at most with simple electronic methods.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In 2020, a year characterized by a total block of mobility due to the SARS-COV-2 pandemic, many Italian professional orders were supposed to renew their elected positions and found themselves unable to create the inevitable gatherings that characterize the places where polling stations are located.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In our country, Article 31 of the so-called Ristori decree (Decree-Law No. 137\/2020, as amended by Law No. 176\/2020) provided that the electoral procedures for the composition of the territorial bodies of professional orders could be carried out remotely via telematics, according to a regulation issued by the relevant national council.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The orders moved with confusing and different modalities from one another for the 2020 elections, some postponing them to a date to be determined, others holding elections in person during periods of pandemic decline, and still others daring <strong>electronic voting<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For example, some orders belonging to veterinary doctors used remote voting for the renewal of positions for the 2021\/2024 triennium, using the Skyvote cloud platform, which uses proprietary servers on Italian territory and allows the identification of the voter through a double verification check via SMS or phone call to confirm the vote; the secrecy of the vote exercised on Skyvote cloud, according to the developers, is guaranteed by the encryption of Thales&#8217; cryptographic systems (a world leader in cryptography for defense and aerospace), which allows knowing the vote only at the time of scrutiny, through a split between the electoral register and the ballot box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Journalists, on the other hand, for the 2020\/2023 elections have opted for a regulation on electoral procedures with a mixed telematic and in-person approach, using a telematic voting platform that will be developed by Maggioli S.p.A. and Pro Logic Informatica S.r.l.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Order of Chartered Accountants and Accounting Experts of Udine was more daring and innovative, and decided to carry out voting through <strong>blockchain technology<\/strong>, b-voting by Net Service S.p.A., which operates on the Etherna platform, and promises non-traceable, non-alterable, verifiable voting and vote counting verification.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Use Case: <strong>Electronic Voting<\/strong> on Blockchain<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">However, these were sporadic examples, and only one of them concerned <strong>blockchain technology<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In theory, <strong>electronic voting<\/strong> on blockchain (Blockchain E-Voting or B.E.V.) could be a more efficient and streamlined solution, providing greater transparency and security in electoral operations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Returning to elections in countries, the case of Sierra Leone is well-known, where blockchain voting became a reality in 2018, when the votes in the Western District were recorded using blockchain developed by Agora, which was able to conduct tests.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Certainly, introducing voting on blockchain runs the risk of shifting voters&#8217; trust from central authorities (the state, political parties, professional orders) to technology. Currently, elections are managed by central authorities, but if we were to decide to move them to blockchain, where voters themselves would have an immutable copy of their vote and control the immutability of other votes in the unalterable chain of blocks, the trust citizens have in the genuineness of the electoral outcome would shift from the state to blockchain, or rather to the developer of that technology.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In addition, there is the issue of cybersecurity: the blockchain system should be surrounded by the highest existing cybersecurity precautions, to the point of exaggeration, and countries like Italy are not exactly at the forefront in this respect: suffice it to think that the National Cybersecurity Agency was established only this summer of 2021, and incidents of cyber attacks such as that of the Lazio Region teach us that there is still a long way to go.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Internationally, some important scholars are against using blockchain for voting operations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A research published on May 15, 2019, by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI), for example, in analyzing the results of 97 national elections in as many countries, held between November 8, 2016, and April 30, 2019, showed that in at least 20 countries, there were signs of foreign interference during voting; the interference of these interventions could be greater if the vote were exercised on blockchain, in favor of the most technologically advanced states (or even criminal groups).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The American presidential elections of 2020, with Donald Trump who repeatedly cried electoral fraud, have aroused in many the desire for <strong>electronic voting<\/strong> on blockchain, so much so that Binance CEO CZ Zhao suggested in a tweet to use a blockchain-based voting app that can protect privacy using encryption.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">However, the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) strongly opposed the application of such technology, precisely because of the risk of cyber attacks and vote manipulation, as well as the lack of guarantee of citizen privacy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Another famous expert in the field who is against using blockchain for voting is Ronald (Ron) Rivest, founder of the Cryptography and Information Security Group at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (M.I.T.) Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory and inventor of the RSA algorithm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In his paper &#8220;Going From Bad to Worse: From Internet Voting to Blockchain Voting,&#8221; Rivest claims that he has not yet seen &#8220;a blockchain system that I would trust for a count of candies at a county fair, let alone a presidential election.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">According to research conducted by MIT researchers, <strong>blockchain technology<\/strong> would not be able to solve the fundamental security problems that <strong>electronic voting<\/strong> systems face and could even introduce new ones, as there are five minimum requirements that any voting system (electronic or blockchain-based) must have to be considered secure:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Secret ballot to prevent intimidation or vote-buying;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Independence of the software for the verifiability of the result;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Verifiable ballots by voters who can confirm that their vote has been recorded correctly;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Contestability to demonstrate an error, if detected;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Auditing that allows verifying the integrity of the entire electoral process.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">According to MIT, blockchain systems would not be able to cover serious malfunctions or cases where election results could be falsified due to an error or &#8211; worse &#8211; a cyber attack.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The independence of the software is one of the major problems because citizens&#8217; trust would pass from the paper ballot managed by a State or a professional order to the manufacturer of software, whose main purpose (rightly) is profit and not the achievement of collective well-being.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Rivest&#8217;s statements appeared immediately after an all-American scandal, the Iowa Democratic Caucus, when the Democratic Party had to postpone the publication of results precisely because of a malfunction in an application that was created to facilitate vote counting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Despite the technicians&#8217; concerns, there are various examples of software that allow voting on the blockchain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Follow my vote in 2017 made public the deposit of the patent for &#8220;BLOCKCHAIN ELECTONIC VOTING SYSTEM AND METHOD,&#8221; invented by Adam Ernest, Nathan Hourt, and Daniel Larimer: the system would allow, through a series of servers, to separate the voter&#8217;s name from his vote, thus guaranteeing the anonymity of the vote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Net Service S.p.A., in collaboration with the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science (DMI) of the University of Cagliari, is working on Crypto-Voting, an <strong>electronic voting<\/strong> system based on <strong>Blockchain technology<\/strong>, funded by Sardegna Ricerche under the POR FESR Sardegna 2014-2020. The project is based on two concatenated blockchains, of the one-way pegged sidechain type: one to record eligible voters and voting operations, the other to count votes assigned to various candidates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In 2020, Kaspersky presented Polys, an online voting platform for companies, universities, and political parties based on <strong>blockchain technology<\/strong>, which allows transmitting and processing together and securely both votes cast physically at a polling station and those formulated through the voter&#8217;s device (smartphone, PC).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">To vote via a device, the voter must authenticate with an identity document. After authentication, they receive a unique QR code reserved for them, which allows them &#8211; through scanning with a special device &#8211; to vote and check that their vote has been effectively recorded in the blockchain. It is not possible to trace the voter&#8217;s data and link it to their vote since the name and choice are not stored on the blockchain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In conclusion, for political and administrative elections, I believe that we must always keep in mind that, under article 48 of the Italian Constitution, the vote is personal, equal, free, and secret, and its exercise is a civic duty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">At the state of the art, from a cost-benefit analysis, the exclusive use of B.E.V. would certainly represent a risk to democracy since, in the absence of public voting stations and in the absence of adequate internet network (and unfortunately, Italy is famous for the digital divide), many citizens would find themselves physically unable to vote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I also believe that, in the absence of adequate cyber protection systems, groups of malicious individuals could more easily control who votes, carrying out reprisals against abstainers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The vote on blockchain would not solve the problem of political mafia exchange and vote buying, in fact, it would amplify it, as mafia criminal groups could, for example, turn to hackers, creating a synergy capable of coercing the electoral result of a municipality or a region, up to parliament.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I believe that when it comes to elections, the road to blockchain voting is long and must go through institutions capable of placing competent people in the right positions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The price to pay for the convenience of voting for our representatives via smartphone could be too high.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Intro &#8211; The Ledger. The word blockchain literally means &#8220;chains of blocks&#8221;: it is a distributed digital ledger technology (D.L.T.). Technically, it is defined as a &#8220;system for recording and storing data on which consensus can be reached in a decentralized manner, since transaction blocks can only be added, but never modified or deleted.&#8221; The [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":77,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"subtitle":"","format":"standard","video":"","gallery":"","source_name":"","source_url":"","via_name":"","via_url":"","override_template":"0","override":[{"template":"2","single_blog_custom":"","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"0","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"float","share_float_style":"share-normal","show_share_counter":"1","show_view_counter":"1","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"1","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","show_zoom_button":"1","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"0","show_popup_post":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"1","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"override_image_size":"0","image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post":"0","trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post":"0","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","sponsored_post_name":"","sponsored_post_url":"","sponsored_post_logo_enable":"0","sponsored_post_logo":"","sponsored_post_desc":"","disable_ad":"0"},"jnews_primary_category":{"id":"","hide":""},"jnews_social_meta":{"fb_title":"","fb_description":"","fb_image":"","twitter_title":"","twitter_description":"","twitter_image":""},"footnotes":""},"categories":[585,525],"tags":[800,170,798,62,832,177],"coauthors":[479],"class_list":["post-6397","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics-eng","category-real-applications-en","tag-bitcoin-en","tag-blockchain-en","tag-businesses","tag-ledger","tag-sistemi-di-voto-en","tag-smart-contracts-en"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/affidaty.io\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6397","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/affidaty.io\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/affidaty.io\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/affidaty.io\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/77"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/affidaty.io\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6397"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/affidaty.io\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6397\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/affidaty.io\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6397"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/affidaty.io\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6397"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/affidaty.io\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6397"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/affidaty.io\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=6397"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}