New alt-coin for election purposes next time.

[Dabs]

Hi,

I am starting this thread to discuss, at a technical and/or protocol level what are good features for implementation of a new or existing alt-coin for election purposes, to solve transparency and cheating issues in elections.

From the politics thread:

I believe naipost ko na to dati, 20 pesos para bilhin ang boto ng nasa balota na.
Here it is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2GAWfq1hCwY

"Alam nila ang source code, alam nila ang private keys." (They know the source code, they know the private keys, of the PCOS machines.)

Eh, madali lang ang solusyon, COMELEC should create a coin to be the "Philippine Election Coin" so it has a blockchain secured by thousands of pinoys here and abroad.

Each party and each candidate will run a full node and / or miner. That way, walang dayaan sa counting of votes.

hahahahahaha... walang pulitiko mag agree dito, at kailangan pa pag aralan.

Maybe sa next election.

There should be incentive to run an honest node and honest miners and honest pools, so baka hybrid proof-of-work and proof-of-stake, as well as coins generated will be payable by a budget from comelec.

So some points: (I am writing in English for the sake of others who do not understand Tagalog."

1. coin blockchain secured by honest nodes, many candidates, many voters, some overseas.
2. incentive for hosting a full node.
3. incentive for mining.
4. short life span = programmed to stop rewards after elections, maybe with a few weeks grace period.
5. open source = obviously
6. ability to do 90 million transactions per day (or maybe more than twice the voting population.

Voting is done as follows:

1. a transaction to a particular address or addresses, showing the vote. The individual voter will see the transaction (as will the whole world), but he or she will remain anonymous, at least at the voting precinct.
2. the actual amount doesn't matter, maybe the tx fee will be large enough to be an incentive to miners, so to confirm the transaction in a block.
3. fast block times, not too fast, but not longer than 10 minutes, maybe.
4. allow large blocks, to include as many "votes" as possible, while still being a reasonable size.

This is a specialized application of a blockchain, so it is probably not required and not possible for the entire population to run full nodes. However, it should be possible for many to quickly verify.

What might happen is that many large private institutions, such as the top 100 universal banks, and the top 1000 corporations, will be requested by COMELEC to provide the hardware for the elections. It's just one node each.

With the incentive for nodes and miners, many private individuals will probably also host them. Most homes now have broadband internet connections, and with a national scoped P2P application, ping times should be low enough. Perhaps the telecom companies will also host their own nodes and miners.

This is all open for discussion, that's why this thread was started.

Obviously, this is too late for the 2016 elections. But it might be possible to implement for the next local elections.

I'm ruling out the politics of actually getting this implemented, but it should technically be possible.

It has long been argued that banks could have done this with their network of ATM machines, and that's not using a cryptocurrency with a blockchain.


Comments, suggestions are welcome.

[Dabs]

I think the whole process starts a few months before the actual elections, and registration also occurs. Some form of multi-signature used.

Also something else to prevent double-voting, or flying voting. Maybe part of the registration.

[Lutzow]

I think the whole process starts a few months before the actual elections, and registration also occurs. Some form of multi-signature used.

Also something else to prevent double-voting, or flying voting. Maybe part of the registration.

The problem with this is there's a big chance for it to be beaten by the current flawed system under SmartMatic. I'm part of a company that was able to automate voting system in several countries flawlessly and clean but upon bringing it here in the Philippines they always lose to SmartMatic for unknown reasons. Other countries might give this one a try though, nice OP.

[BitTyro]

Its a brilliant idea, but I see a lot of legislative and technical dificulties with this kind of voting.

If by any chance we are to implement this,  does this mean that for every candidate, they have a unique coin for their votes? If so, I think its very hard and way too expensive to implement this.

[Dabs]

Its a brilliant idea, but I see a lot of legislative and technical dificulties with this kind of voting.

If by any chance we are to implement this,  does this mean that for every candidate, they have a unique coin for their votes? If so, I think its very hard and way too expensive to implement this.

No, same coin, transactions are just counted. Or listed in the blockchain. Unless you meant a unique address.

The coin itself will not have a value assigned to it unless COMELEC says so (as the incentive to nodes or miners).

But then, I just realized, candidates will now try to "buy" your vote, from the voters directly.

The point is to make the whole process completely transparent.

[BitTyro]

Okay, I get it.
So, every voter need to have an address and then comelec will send you exact amount of coins that you can send to candidates address to cast your vote?

6. ability to do 90 million transactions

We are not only talking to 90M transaction here, dont you think? Even if only 50% will cast their votes, thats 45M transaction for president alone. Just for the national position, blockchain will need to confirm 630M transaction. And for local positions, thats 70 billion.

Im sorry but Im not so familiar with the technicalities behind crypto coins but thats how I see it. Correct me if Im wrong.

[Dabs]

Well, if each vote is a separate transaction, eh diba, when you vote, you list all your candidates in one page?

When the machine is about to broadcast your vote or transaction, everyone in your list is included in that single transaction. From President, to Vice, to Senators, to Congressmen ... and all other elected positions.

In 1 minute right after your vote, you can see it "floating", but "good" na yon.
In 5 to 10 minutes, it gets included in the next block.
In 1 hour, your vote is "permanent."
At the end of the day, anyone can count all the votes and see who won.

Anyway, that's the idea.

[BitTyro]

The more I try to comprehend the full conscept of this grandiose plan, the more my stupidity becomes apparent. 

One more thing chief, I understand that you only need a single transaction from your end to cast/send your vote. But in that single transaction, you list up to 30+ names. Will blockchain view it as single transaction or do it need to confirm one by one whats in that single  transaction?

If it is just a single transaction, counting of votes will become so complicated ,but if its the later, we are going back to my previous comment.

[Dabs]

Because everything is in the blockchain, no matter how complicated it seems, everything can be counted.

Just like, for example, you can send bitcoins to multiple people at different addresses right now in one transaction. The whole transaction has a hash, and all the unspent inputs are signed by the private key, which only the "voter" has.

How exactly this will work is something that has to be explored. But at least we are talking about it now. Who knows, maybe in a couple of years the process is polished and any other country can use the system.

Or, maybe it just won't be workable and this idea flops.

[Lutzow]

Because everything is in the blockchain, no matter how complicated it seems, everything can be counted.

Just like, for example, you can send bitcoins to multiple people at different addresses right now in one transaction. The whole transaction has a hash, and all the unspent inputs are signed by the private key, which only the "voter" has.

How exactly this will work is something that has to be explored. But at least we are talking about it now. Who knows, maybe in a couple of years the process is polished and any other country can use the system.

Or, maybe it just won't be workable and this idea flops.

or another technology riding on top of the blockchain can help. Just like how colored-coins became usable to some who find the normal blockchain impossible or hard to deal with. It will make the releasing of results faster though if electo-coin becomes to fruition but who knows.