#21DaysSolidityChallenge Day 8: Empower Democracy with Delegated Voting — Your Voice, Your Choice! 🗳️
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👋 Welcome to Day 8 of our Solidity Code Challenge series! Today’s challenge puts you in the shoes of a blockchain democracy advocate. You’ll create a smart contract for delegated voting, allowing users to delegate their voting rights to another address. The delegate can then cast votes on their behalf, ensuring that every voice is heard, even when someone can’t vote directly. Get ready to dive into the world of decentralized governance!
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🗳️ Delegated Voting: A Quick Overview
Before we delve into today’s challenge, let’s briefly understand what delegated voting is and why it’s important:
- Delegated Voting: Delegated voting, also known as proxy voting, is a mechanism where a voter can delegate their voting power to another person or entity. This concept is commonly used in decentralized organizations and governance systems.
Now, let’s embark on this journey to empower democracy through smart contracts!
Step 1: Setting Up Your Development Environment
Before we begin coding, ensure you have the following tools and accounts ready:
1. Ethereum Wallet: You’ll need an Ethereum wallet like MetaMask to interact with the Ethereum blockchain.
2. Solidity Compiler: Have the Solidity compiler (solc) installed on your computer or use online Solidity development environments like Remix.
3. Test Network: Choose a test network (e.g., Ropsten, Rinkeby, or Kovan) to deploy and test your delegated voting contract without using real Ether.
4. Integrated Development Environment (IDE): Consider using an IDE like Visual Studio Code with Solidity extensions for a smoother coding experience.
Step 2: Designing the Delegated Voting Contract
Let’s create a Solidity smart contract for your delegated voting system. We’ll name it `DelegatedVoting.sol`. This contract will implement delegated voting, vote counting, and ensure that delegated votes are counted correctly.
// SPDX-License-Identifier: MIT
pragma solidity ^0.8.0;
contract DelegatedVoting {
struct Voter {
bool hasVoted;
address delegate;
uint256 vote;
}
address public admin;
uint256 public totalVotes;
uint256 public proposal;
mapping(address => Voter) public voters;
constructor() {
admin = msg.sender;
proposal = 0;
}
modifier onlyAdmin() {
require(msg.sender == admin, "Only admin can perform this action");
_;
}
modifier hasNotVoted() {
require(!voters[msg.sender].hasVoted, "You have already voted");
_;
}
function delegateVote(address to) external {
require(to != msg.sender, "You cannot delegate your vote to yourself");
require(!voters[msg.sender].hasVoted, "You have already voted");
// Follow the delegation chain to prevent cycles
address delegateTo = to;
while (voters[delegateTo].delegate != address(0)) {
delegateTo = voters[delegateTo].delegate;
require(delegateTo != msg.sender, "Delegation cycle detected");
}
voters[msg.sender].hasVoted = true;
voters[msg.sender].delegate = to;
if (voters[to].hasVoted) {
proposal += 1;
}
}
function vote(uint256 option) external hasNotVoted {
require(option == 0 || option == 1, "Invalid vote option");
address delegateTo = voters[msg.sender].delegate;
if (delegateTo != address(0)) {
// If the delegate has voted, use their vote
require(!voters[delegateTo].hasVoted, "Delegate has already voted");
voters[msg.sender].hasVoted = true;
voters[msg.sender].vote = option;
} else {
// Direct vote
voters[msg.sender].hasVoted = true;
voters[msg.sender].vote = option;
}
if (option == 1) {
proposal += 1;
}
totalVotes += 1;
}
}In this contract:
- We define a `Voter` struct to store voter information, including whether they have voted, their delegate (if any), and their vote.
- The contract has an `admin` address to manage administrative actions.
- There’s a `proposal` variable representing a proposal or issue with two options (0 or 1).
- The `delegateVote` function allows voters to delegate their vote to another address. It ensures that delegation doesn’t create cycles.
- The `vote` function allows voters to cast their votes directly or based on their delegate’s vote.
Step 3: Compiling the Delegated Voting Contract
Compile your delegated voting contract using the Solidity compiler. Use the following command in your terminal:
solc - bin - abi DelegatedVoting.solThis command generates the bytecode (`DelegatedVoting.bin`) and ABI (`DelegatedVoting.abi`) required for contract deployment.
Step 4: Deploying the Delegated Voting Contract
Deploy your delegated voting contract to a test network. Follow these steps:
1. Open your Ethereum wallet (e.g., MetaMask) and switch to the Ropsten network.
2. Acquire some test Ether for Ropsten from a faucet. You can find a faucet by searching “Ropsten faucet” online.
3. Deploy your contract using a tool like Remix or Truffle, or manually through a script.
- Go to Remix (https://remix.ethereum.org/).
- Click the “Solidity” tab.
- Create a new file, paste your delegated voting contract code, and compile it.
- Switch to the “Deploy & Run Transactions” tab.
- Ensure your environment is set to “Injected Web3” (if you’re using MetaMask).
- Click the “Deploy” button.
4. Confirm the deployment in your wallet, and your contract will be deployed to the Ropsten network.
Step 5: Testing the Delegated Voting
Now that your delegated voting contract is deployed, let’s test its functionality:
1. In Remix, locate your deployed `DelegatedVoting` contract.
2. You will see the contract functions, including `delegateVote` and `vote`.
3. Start by delegating your vote to another address.
4. Try casting your vote and observe that the delegated vote affects the proposal count.
5. Explore different delegation scenarios and vote combinations to verify that the contract correctly counts votes and enforces delegation rules.
Step 6: Writing Tests for the Delegated Voting
To ensure that the delegated voting contract works as expected, let’s write tests. You can use a testing framework like Truffle or Hardhat. Here’s a simplified example using Truffle:
// In a Truffle test file, e.g., DelegatedVoting.test.js
const DelegatedVoting = artifacts.require("DelegatedVoting");
contract("DelegatedVoting", (accounts) => {
it("should allow delegated voting and count votes correctly", async () => {
const admin = accounts[0];
const voter1 = accounts[1];
const voter2
= accounts[2];
const delegateTo = accounts[3];
const votingContract = await DelegatedVoting.new({ from: admin });
// Delegation: voter1 delegates to delegateTo
await votingContract.delegateVote(delegateTo, { from: voter1 });
// Delegation: voter2 also delegates to delegateTo
await votingContract.delegateVote(delegateTo, { from: voter2 });
// Vote: delegateTo votes for option 1
await votingContract.vote(1, { from: delegateTo });
// Check if votes are counted correctly
const proposalCount = await votingContract.proposal();
assert.equal(proposalCount, 2, "Votes are not counted correctly");
});
});This Truffle test checks that delegated voting works, and votes are counted correctly.
Step 7: Running the Tests
Execute the tests using the Truffle framework. In your project directory, run:
truffle testThis command will run your tests and verify that the delegated voting contract operates as expected.
Conclusion 🌟
In this Day 8 challenge, you’ve harnessed the power of smart contracts to create a delegated voting system. This system empowers users to delegate their voting rights and ensures that votes are counted correctly, contributing to the democratic processes of decentralized organizations.
As you progress through the Solidity Code Challenge series, you’ll continue to explore advanced concepts and build increasingly sophisticated smart contracts. Keep up the fantastic work, and keep championing the cause of decentralized governance!
🚀 Happy coding and voting! 🚀
