Russia’s ruling party launches a blockchain-based e-voting system

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United Russia, the ruling party of Russia, has launched a blockchain-based electronic voting system. The system will allow citizens to participate in primary elections, otherwise known as preliminary voting. 

According to a report by local media outlet TASS, the new system aims at simplifying the electoral process. The party’s head of IT, Vyacheslav Sateev stated:

“We have updated the pre-voting website, introducing a function in it that allows electronic voting for party candidates, and today we officially launch the resource. Access to voting via the Internet will be provided to citizens who have passed authorization through the public services portal.”

The party turned to blockchain technology mainly because it’s immutable. This eliminates the possibility of election interference and makes the process more credible. On the blockchain, information is also available to the users, further increasing the credibility of the election.

Sateev emphasized:

“The main principle is to make the elections transparent by eliminating all intermediate links in the electoral process. It (the new system) will collect and provide all information on the voting process and the results will directly be availed at the polling station or even to the voter himself.”

The new system will also give the candidates a unique opportunity to connect with the voters. It will allow them to maintain personal pages on the portal where they can post videos, photos and other material regarding their candidacy. The candidates will also get an option to link their social media pages with their personal accounts.

Blockchain-based voting has continued to gather popularity all across the world. As we reported, the city of Denver recently announced that it will apply blockchain technology in the upcoming elections. It will rely on technology by Voatz, the blockchain voting startup. 

And it’s spreading to the boardrooms as well. Financial messaging network SWIFT announced recently that it would trial blockchain-based shareholder e-voting. The Brussels-based giant will partner with some major banks for the trial. They include Singaporian DBS bank, Deutsche bank, Standard Chartered and Europe’s largest bank, HSBC.

E-voting is becoming quite popular, boosted by the rising use of the Internet to conduct most activities. In Estonia, the recently concluded election saw an incredible 44 percent of the votes cast online, a global record.