The Brazilian voting authority (TSE), has publicly declared it’s learning blockchain as a know-how that may assist the group in its job of organizing ballots. Celio Castro Wermerlinger, coordinator of modernization of the establishment, said that this decentralized ledger tech was included in a analysis program known as “Elections of the Future.”
Brazilian TSE Is Researching Blockchain Tech
Blockchain tech is being included in a number of options designed for varied purposes, together with poll and voting applied sciences. The Brazilian voting authority introduced final month that they have been researching blockchain tech and the alternative ways it may be included in ballots.
Celio Castro Wermerlinger, who’s the coordinator of modernization on the Brazilian voting authority, said that end-to-end voting protocol, post-quantum cryptography, shared keys, and blockchain have been a part of the applied sciences being studied. This investigation is a part of a program known as “Elections of the Future,” that seeks extra environment friendly and extra economically viable options to be applied within the digital voting system.
Nonetheless, Wermerlinger didn’t provide a timeline for the appliance of those options and argued that the Brazilian voting system, which is now 100% nationwide, was secure as a result of digital options which can be applied in each poll.
Blockchain and Voting
Whereas voting is listed as one of many potential purposes of blockchain techniques as a result of belief and safety it’d carry, it has not been extensively adopted aside from a number of pilot exams performed within the U.S., and occasions in different international locations.
Voatz, a blockchain-based voting firm, is among the pioneers on this discipline, having helped residents of West Virginia exterior of the state to vote utilizing their cell phones throughout the 2018 poll. Nonetheless, this pilot was criticized as a result of safety points it’d carry to the outcomes of the election. Authorities within the state suspended its use citing safety issues in 2020.
Even after that, the platform was used to prepare a mock election in Chandler, Arizona with the intention of testing the platform and the response of the residents whereas utilizing this sort of app on a poll. The pilot was not too long ago deemed constructive by town clerk.
Voatz has additionally been concerned in elections in different international locations, together with Venezuela. The applying was used to prepare an unofficial referendum towards Nicolas Maduro, president of the nation, with thousands and thousands utilizing it in 2020.