Saturday 23 April 2016

Will Blockchain Technology Enable Ghana's Electoral Commission To Organise Tamper-Proof And Foolproof Presidential And Parliamentary Elections?

If Ghana is to remain politically stable,  it is crucial that the results of this year's presidential and parliamentary elections, truly reflect the will of the electorate.

Whoever is elected as President of the Republic of Ghana, after the counting of votes, and collation of same, must have genuinely won a majority of at least 50% +1 of the total votes cast, on polling day.

Alas, such is the intensity of the rivalry, between Ghana's two biggest political parties, the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC), and the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP), that widespread violence is likely to break out, if the elections are rigged by either of those two parties.

That is why the Electoral Commission (EC), ought to be assisted by all well-meaning Ghanaians, to make the 2016 presidential and parliamentary elections, truly free and fair.

The good news, for well-meaning and patriotic Ghanaians, is that there is cutting-edge, disruptive technology available today, which can make it possible for the EC to conduct  foolproof and tamper-proof elections, this year.

The EC, and the Inter-Party Advisory Committee (IPAC) - which is made up of representatives from all the political parties who collaborate with the EC to improve the electoral process - should invite the U.S. tech company, Blockchain Apparatus, to make a presentation to them, to demonstrate the capabilities and suitability of its blockchain-secured voting machine, for conducting elections in Ghana.

Once they are convinced, that it will guarantee tamper-proof and foolproof voting throughout the nation, they must be creative - and suggest a public private partnership (PPP) between the EC and Blockchain Apparatus.

The EC and Blockchain Apparatus can work together to provide blockchain-secured voting machines across Africa, as a for-profit consultancy, providing blockchain-secured  voting machines for electoral authorities, in all the nations in the continent. After all, there is not a single country in Africa,  in which voters want elections to be stolen, and victory unjustly snatched, from deserving winners, through rigging.

Since the private-sector of our national economy, will only thrive, if Ghana still remains peaceful and stable after this year's elections, why don't private businesses in the country, collectively fund the importation of the blockchain-secured voting machines, which will be needed for the presidential and parliamentary elections - as their collective CSR initiative: to protect Ghanaian democracy by ensuring free and fair elections this year?

Blockchain-secured voting machines will ensure free, fair, tamper-proof and foolproof elections in Ghana.

The EC, the IPAC and other stakeholders, must also be a tad more imaginative, in their thinking about funding a national identification system, for Ghana.

What have they got to lose, if they approach Facebook, and suggest a public private partnership (PPP), between Ghana and Facebook, in which Facebook funds a new national identification system for Ghana, using Facebook's DeepFace artificial intelligence software?

To get a national conversation going on the issue, this blog is reproducing an article culled from the  www.cryptocoinsnews.com  website, for readers to peruse and mull over.

Hopefully, it will also be considerable food for thought, for the block-headed Sammy Awukus, the garrulous John Boadus, and the cowardly and obtuse hare-brained schemers, who are  behind rabble-rousing partisan civil society groups, such as the Let My Vote Count Alliance, and the Alliance for Accountable Governance, to chew on.

Please read on:

Blockchain Technologies Corp., a New York City-based company that has developed a bitcoin ATM, has developed what it calls a secure, open-source voting machine that use the block chain to record votes, replacing existing proprietary voting machines that are vulnerable to hacking, according to Motherboard.

Blockchain Technologies Logo

With a distributed ledger such as a block chain, everyone who sets up a node on the network gets a copy of it. Under this system, network of participants track all entries, continuously verifying recorded activity to maintain the ledger’s integrity.

How It Works

On election day, voters will fill out an election ballot that has three QR codes at the bottom, one representing a block chain address, one representing the ballot ID, and one for the election ID. Each vote unit transfers to the appropriate candidate as votes are scanned. There is a unique address for each candidate. Voters will be able to look up a candidate’s address to see the vote totals.

The voting machine is not connected to the Internet during voting as a security measure; this will prevent outsiders from manipulating votes as they are cast. The machine burns the ballots to a DVD before it connects to the Internet. The DVD will also be encased in a chassis where it will be impervious to electronic manipulation.
The machine prototype resembles a fax machine with a screen.

Blockchain Technologies has developed a block chain it calls VoteUnit that does not require transaction fees for every transfer as bitcoin requires.

Security Issues Still Exist

The block chain does not solve the problem of malicious software, according to Jeremy Epstein, a senior computer scientist at SRI International.

Blockchain Technologies will include a paper trail for voters to examine to ensure the voting machine database is correct and has not been manipulated. If the block chain data does not match the data on the DVD, on account of error or manipulation, the paper ballots can be used to do a recount.

Blockchain Technologies Corp. will open source its voting machine software, said Steve Borelli, a software developer for the company. This stands in contrast to proprietary software used by other voting machines that cannot be inspected by outsiders.

Also read: Cryptovoter brings decentralized voting to bitcoin

To Be Ready For 2016 Voting

The company expects to complete the machine before the 2016 election. Blockchain Technologies recently merged with GAHC, which has a subsidiary, Global Election Services, which holds more than 4,000 labor union elections annually.
Block chain based elections, according to advocates, are transparent and secure. The Liberal Alliance in Denmark and the European Pirate Party have tested these elections."

 End of culled article from www.cryptocoinsnews.com website.



















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