Redefining Human Rights with Blockchain voting
According to local news outlet Mickey News, South Australia is going to conduct an election in collaboration with Horizon State using blockchain technology. The significance of this event lies in the scale and complexity involved since there will be a large pool of candidates and preferential voting involved. Blockchain voting marks a historical moment in human history because the right to vote will no longer be governed solely by law, but by a set of mathematically proven computer algorithms - Blockchain.
Human Rights itself is a simple concept, but how it is enforced and who acts as the authority to protect and enforce human rights are key questions that need to be addressed. With decentralization and transparency being major characteristics of blockchain, the authority and the enforcement of human rights will be more secure since blockchain technology possess the following characteristics:
- all users have access to updated information and transactions within the system
- transaction and information validity are agreed upon through consensus
- the blockchain network is transparent to users both inside and outside the system
Looking back through human history, the right to vote is often associated with conflict, greed, political turbulence and upheaval. To this day, there are still countries like Afghanistan and Kenya, that have voting systems plagued by a long history of autocracy and corruption despite the appearance of a high voter turnout. Many people in such developing countries require open and transparent voting to truly experience the benefits that a democratic society can bring.
It is important to understand and be able preserve this right. However, people in many African countries face serious issues that lead to their rights being taken away by acts of violence and manipulation. Problems they are currently facing include low levels of literacy, poor network connections and frequent political violence. Prior to South Australia, there was a controversial but monumental incident in Sierra Leone that proved to be the first time blockchain technology was demonstrated to be applicable in elections. Agora, a Swiss blockchain technology company that offers blockchain voting solutions to the country’s most populous region had stored over 400,000 ballots on their blockchain-based voting system. This was the first time in human history that technology can be used to increase the transparency and reduce corruption in political system. Given the current implementation of blockchain technology in the political voting, we are expect to see a more clean and transparent world for our future!