Is the Blockchain the Right Tool to Fix Voting Problems?

Laid out in an op-ed published Oct. 19 why they believe the blockchain may not necessarily be the tool to fix America's troubled voting system.

Researchers Ari Juels, Ittay Eyal, and Oded Naor of IC3 outlined in Business Insider four main reasons they believed blockchain and voting don't mix.

The mere possibility of that happening dilutes trust, the foundation for any voting system and that some would argue America's is already lacking.

The article even went so far as to compare internet voting systems to drunk driving, quoting cryptographer and MIT professor Ronald Rivest.

The third concern raised was that a blockchain voting system would rely on computerized devices, and not people.

"If your phone is infected with malware that switches your vote from Candidate R to Candidate D, it doesn't matter how secure the rest of the voting system is - the election has still been hacked."

Some creators of these new online voting systems are allegedly not making their code available to the public, meaning an independent party isn't able to audit it and examine for security flaws before the system is put into use.

Strict criminal penalties and secret ballots currently make bribing people for votes difficult to do, but the article contends an online voting system would make it a lot easier.

People could be bribed with untraceable crypto to cast their vote a certain way, and voting on the blockchain could potentially eliminate voter secrecy by posting traceable identifiers to the chain.

Online Voting Already in Use.West Virginia has rolled out a mobile voting system.