With the Aadhar card and eKYC becoming mainstream in India, it should be practical to setup an electronic voting system leveraging blockchain
In the 1990s, when the web came into the picture, websites were a geeky concept, and up until 2000s, we could list out organizations with or without websites. As new technologies have evolved, both private and government organizations have adopted a gradual approach for implementing emerging technologies. From mobile to cloud, firms are experimenting with new technologies. Blockchain is the latest technology which has attracted huge attention.
Blockchain is the same technology behind powering Bitcoin, which was not able to create a big enough impact in the market. The blockchain is basically a database where all Bitcoin transactions are recorded and stored. However, now many have focused on the ways to use blockchain without involving Bitcoins for transactions or self-agreement ledger way. The blockchain or ‘distributed ledgers,’ as they are often described is updated and maintained, not by a single body, company or government, but run by a network of users. It’s akin to the way a shared Google spreadsheet is maintained by its users. The technology relies on a network of computers, and hence organizations view it as an attractive technology as it eliminates the need of central institution to keep records.
“Blockchain typically should be considered when you want to eliminate trusted intermediaries, add transparency and immutable audit trail, have multiparty data sharing when the parties don’t trust each other and improve efficiencies by maintaining constantly synced up distributed ledger,” said Pandurang Kamat, Chief Architect – Innovation and R&D at Persistent Systems.
The tech-savvy Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government can effectively achieve Digital India vision by leveraging blockchain. Persistent’s Kamat said that blockchain has the potential to disrupt multiple industries and practically all of those are relevant and applicable here in India. “The use of this technology in land/property registrations and digital locker for all our KYC documents, can add speed and transparency to government, and can create auditable SLAs around delivery of government services,” pointed out Kamat.
Moreover, with the Aadhar card and eKYC becoming mainstream in India, it should be practical to setup an electronic voting system leveraging blockchain. “Due to the attributes of trust, transparency and immutability, such a system will help solve the issues like vote manipulation in our political process and ensure that the voice of the people is counted,” said. Deepak Kinger, Vice President, Banking and Financial Services, VirtusaPolaris.
Such solutions are already being spotted outside India. Like, a blockchain company in the US, Follow My Vote, has already released the alpha version of its stake weighted voting software. The alpha version runs on a blockchain using the open-source Graphene Blockchain Framework architected and developed by Follow My Vote CTO, Nathan Hourt and Dan Larimer of Steemit Inc. The software can enable more advanced anonymous, verified identity system which will be used to run a parallel election to the US presidential election in November. Follow My Vote develops open-source blockchain voting software that supports early voting from mobile devices and provides immediate transparency into election results by allowing voters to independently audit the ballot box to ensure that election results are honest.