The Fall of Democracy, and the Rise of Blockchain Elections.

BlueStateBandit
Aug 26, 2017 · 5 min read

The Case for Smart Contract Based Cryptographic Election Systems

It has become painfully apparent in recent years that US elections are a sham. We are no longer a functioning Democratic Republic, just an Oligarchy sporting a two-faced mask. They own the machines we “vote” on, the “news” we’re fed, the politicians we “elect”, and the judges we turn to for remedy.

Before the 2016 elections, many of us were resigned to our pre-arrainged corners, voting against the other side out of fear and false hope. Every 4 years, we are sold a bill of goods by our party nominees; promises of action on the issues we hold dear, only to see them pawned off after the elections for money and power, or to cover up the misdeeds hung snugly around the necks of our “leaders”.

This ongoing bastardization of our founding documents have compromised every conceivable corner of our society, from science to sports, education, finance, and diplomacy. The lies we’ve been fed by their media and false assumptions fomented by our sabotaged educational system has set the stage for infighting that has blinded us all from the perils of a crumbling, poisoned society on the brink of what anthropologists call a genetic bottleneck and us common folks call the 6th mass extinction.

If there was ever a need for a secured decentralization of our election systems, it is now. To this point, I offer these thought to any and all crypto-aware Americans as a means of doing just that.

There are many start-ups that are attempting to create a secured decentralized voting application on blockchain technology. With the advent of Smart Contract technology and Identity Management applications such as Civic, I think it is time that we lay down some requirements as to what we should expect from any platform that is proposed to the masses to perform this critical function in a government of The People, for The People, by The People: The system we’ve been promised.

The initial approach of securing the vote is in-and-of -itself insufficient. We have seen the data collected by campaigns being misused and monetized by greedy politicians and corporations alike. Indiscriminate voter purges, busing voters from outside districts, true and false accusations of illegal voters, discriminatory voter ID laws, harassment at the polls, and a thoroughly corrupted, centralized voter tabulation system have all but made it impossible to create a voting system without an identity management system to secure a one person-one vote system free of manipulation.

Requirements:

  1. Voter data bases: State/Local/Federal/Party/Campaign all on blockchain w/ varying levels of access w/ voter having top permission/private key.

2. Multi sig access at all levels, with varying limits to available data per level.

a. campaign sign-ups (voter/canvasser),

b. voter registration (voter/state/federal),

c. research level data (state/campaign/polling/academic)

d. elections (voter/campaign/state/pollwatchers)

e. oversight (voter/state/campaign/oversight board/DOJ Civil Rights Division)

3. Automatic voter registration of all citizens on the date of their 18th birthday.

Research level access to be subjected to randomized/restricted non-identifiable geographical voter data. Voters may participate in polling over the blockchain via private or public poll operators with a wallet application. Voters may select various levels of poll intimacy. Allow for both campaign polling and constituent polling on specific policies up for legislative action. Nominal fees paid by the perspective campaigns for access to the polling system should be more than enough to fund operations while still being cheaper and more accurate than traditional polling operations.

A private key is generated at time of registration. This private key belongs to the voter, and acts as 1 part of a 3 factor verification system. One cryptographical (digital key), one bio-metrical, and either password/passphrase or security questionnaire (to secure 5th amendment protection) making 4 available factors total. Replacement of either the key or password/phrase would require bio-metrical plus security questionnaire and be flagged on the blockchain as chain of evidence in case of attempted fraud. Flag remains until 1 or 2 years after following election until relieved via consensus, but data will remain accessible in perpetuity for polling and chain of evidence.

Oversight should be a combination of a board elected using a Smart Contract, state, campaign, and DOJ Civil Rights Division, with the voter informed of any and all actions concerning his/her data via wallet application and blockscan website.

Voting machines/central tabulators can act as mining rigs. They would become a citizen owned system using ASIC equiped rigs who’s manufacture and distribution is controlled by the Oversight Board. Accessible year round for registration/blockchain maintenance at centralized locations on the municipality level. All open source and available for inspection by Oversight upon request. Run on a one coin per participant proof-of-stake system that is activated by registration and prompts voter 3 months prior to, on week of, then day of all relevant elections via multiple digital and analog means of communication (letter/text/email/voterblockscan).

Polling can be done via cellphone app, web page or telephonicly with a blockchain/telephony interface that acts as the robo-caller, choosing voters via algorithm and restricting personal information in accordance with level of access per-determined by the voter. Canvasser can do on the spot polling w/ voter present on a smart device (phone/i-Pad). A positive canvasser contact allows specific, campaign oriented access level for mailers, fundraising, and GOTV similar to the failed tiered access system NGP/VAN that is suspected of being exploited to exfiltrate data used to purge voters in Brooklyn and Arizona.

Opt out option: Voters can opt out the voter/canvasser level access at any time. This would revert campaign’s permissions back to a more generic data access level. Randomized polling data + name and municipality when applicable to the campaign’s coming election.

Candidates can build blocks of voters that they have exclusive access to (with voter’s consent). This would contain all info collected at point of canvass, as well as non-generic historical polling data from voters collected on the blockchain. This access can be terminated by the voter at any time via the wallet application. This data can be held on a decentralized cloud service such as Siacoin or Filecoin.

This is by no means a full account of what should be required by any blockchain based election system presented for national adoption. I would also recommend that any such open-sourced project have it’s beta version tested in primaries and inter-party office elections in parallel to a paper verified vote for the proposed Peoples Party, and be offered as well to upstart political parties of all denominations.

It’s time we take our country back.

)

Solar not only puts a roof over my head, it lets me sleep well at night. Always looking for a better night's sleep.

Welcome to a place where words matter. On Medium, smart voices and original ideas take center stage - with no ads in sight. Watch
Follow all the topics you care about, and we’ll deliver the best stories for you to your homepage and inbox. Explore
Get unlimited access to the best stories on Medium — and support writers while you’re at it. Just $5/month. Upgrade