U.S. Presidential Candidate Supports Blockchain Voting

The presidential elections in the United States of America are expected on November 3, 2020. Traditionally, the confrontation will take place between the Republican and Democratic parties. Even now, this political event promises to be spectacular and interesting. The total number of candidates for the presidency has exceeded 20 people, and none of them intends to give up their positions.
 

Innovative proposals of a young candidate

One of the candidates is the modern entrepreneur Andrew Young, who is engaged in the economic development of US youth, president of the Venture for America Foundation. For his progressive work in creating new jobs and training college students and graduates, as well as in realizing himself in startups, he was awarded the US Presidents Prize.

Despite the lack of political experience, this is one of the youngest and most interesting contenders with innovative approaches to the classical US state system.

Unlike the incumbent president, who is quite critical of blockchain technology, his opponent already accepted donations to Bitcoin through the Lightning Network as part of the election campaign. The collected amount was about 570 thousand dollars. At the same time, the share of commission from the sender of charitable funds was 1%, in contrast to the standard 4% used in the banking system.

Not long ago, Andrew Young added priorities to his campaign platform: digital assets, blockchain technology, and cryptocurrencies. He believes that the lack of government regulation and regulations is holding back the development of the electronic economy, despite the capitalization in this area of several hundred billion dollars. Some federal agencies in America have tried, along with the state, to legitimize cryptography by issuing vague and conflicting regulations. Youngs position, based on the BitLicense, is that current laws are cumbersome and redundant.

The policy of the American state causes confusion and apprehension on the part of the crypto community, which has led to a decrease in investment in this area compared to the countries of Europe and Asia. Young proposes to implement a clear national system for regulating the cryptocurrency market.
 

Andrew Youngs goals and intentions

The goal of the progressive candidate is for investors to be able to innovate in their business without fear of reprisals or regulatory changes.

Andrew Young states that he intends to:

    Provide clarity on the definition of properties, methods of protecting the crypt.
    Define tokens: they are securities or a utility vehicle.
    List federal agencies involved in encryption.
    Provide tax legislation regarding the use and trading of crypto.
    Implement blockchain voting.

 

On his campaign website, Andrew Young says that the classical voting system does not appeal to the citizens of the country. The voter turnout is less than 50%, which is not the opinion of the majority. Long queues at polling stations, lack of 100% protection against falsification of results discourage many people who want to vote. Then the idea arose to express your opinion using a mobile phone using blockchain technology.

Electronic alternative

The new and rapidly developing idea of applying the technology of "distributed consensus" allows groups of people to unite in hierarchical structures, comparable to a corporation or even a state. At every level of society, the government side can be replaced by a group of confidential volunteers. Confidentiality, reliability of information is ensured by the same technological principles that guarantee the security of Bitcoin. Each cast vote is recorded and can be rechecked at any time. Falsifying the slightest bit of information will require changes to the huge chain of decentralized data distributed on different machines.

The goals of introducing technology into the structure of elections:

    easier and safer expression of will by the citizens of the country;
    reduction of confrontation and conflicting processes between states;
    an increase in the proportion of election participants and an increase in the level of confidence in the results obtained.

The use of modern technological developments will make it possible to make government processes closer to ordinary citizens.
 

Positive aspects of blockchain implementation

British writer Greenfield highlights the following advantages in using blockchain in voting:

    Availability and ease of participation in elections. Every citizen can express his or her opinion using a phone or laptop. Even those who, due to circumstances (caring for a child, illness, work duties), cannot be present at the polling station.
    Data security. Lack of unhealthy campaigning conducted by the stakeholder in personal interests at gathering places.

Detailed data analytics. Participants can track their vote and check the correctness of the calculation of the results, since the detailed information of the process is available to the general public. You can compare the results with the preliminary data of opinion polls or draw a parallel with the previous elections.
    Lack of human factor when calculating the results. Each vote is directly entered into the chain and eliminates third-party errors.

In practice, test polls have already been conducted using advanced technologies. For example, in Utah in March this year, candidates for the primaries were selected using the blockchain. The number of registered participants has exceeded 59,000. Also, the public projects of popular vote Backfeed and Democracy.Earth are presented to the world.

The idea of holding elections based on the blockchain is gaining more and more popularity, but today it has not been officially legalized. At the same time, the successful implementation experience allows us to assume a great future of digital technologies in matters of the will of the citizens of the state. It is possible that next year will be held under the slogan: "2020 US elections - voting on the blockchain."