Moscow says it is tapping blockchain, the technology underpinning the cryptocurrency Bitcoin (BTC), to ensure the security and transparency of its voting process.
According to the official news portal of the Moscow Mayor, citizens with permanent registration in Moscow who are over 18 years old can use the blockchain-based system to vote for or against proposed changes to the Russian constitution on June 30th.
Those who want to use the electronic voting system need to register online. The system will cross-check the information submitted during registration with those in the centralized database of voters to identify applicants who will be eligible to participate in the electronic voting.
If approved, the proposed constitutional amendments will extend the term of Russian President Vladimir Putin until 2036. Otherwise, he is supposed to leave his post in 2024.
Moscow officials hope that distributed ledger technology can address concerns of irregularities in the election since the decentralized nature of blockchain makes the data in the network transparent and verifiable.
“In order to change the information regarding bulletins, it is necessary to obtain the approval of most network participants, so the blockchain chain is almost impossible to crack.
“The voice itself is anonymized and encrypted. There will be two encryption keys – one held by each voter while the second will be divided into several parts and stored by different network participants.”