As we approach other national elections on Monday, I cannot avoid reflecting on the impulse we have begun as a community, despite the tokenized electoral frame protocol that is not adopted in time.
About the author: Paul Soliman is the Founder, CEO, and CTO of Hacktiv Colab Inc and Co-Founder, Chairman, and CTO of Bayanichain. In 2023, Soliman presented to COMELEC a proposed solution for utilizing blockchain for transparent and secure elections.
In Bayanichain, we proposed a blockchain vote hybrid architecture that balances the auditability and privacy of the data through the use of public and private accounting books.
- The concept is simple: although the experience of voters remains the same (boots, shaded, voting machines) the backend would transmit immutable data through local to national nodes, validated by third party observers.
- Each vote, encoded as a unique NFT, would add a layer of transparency and digital safety never seen in our choices.
This protocol is driven by prism, our advanced blockchain layer using homomorphic encryption to protect data from delicate voters.
Recently, we tried the partial homomorphic encryption (PHE) of prism for an electoral use case, avoiding that the calculation presented by privacy is not only feasible but necessary for reliable digital governance. (See photos below 🙂
Unfortunately, the implementation lacked the necessary institutional support.
But this does not mean failure: the beginning indicates. And this is still a victory for Cryptoph.
- The fact that Blockchain for the elections is now being discussed at the national level is already a great advance.
- We have seen the interest of the government, public awareness and, most importantly, the relentless impulse of our community.
- The idea that Blockchain is too complex for major generations is a myth. We design this protocol to be perfect and invisible to the voter, which provides that technology can improve trust without interrupting tradition.
Thanks to bitpins for covering this initiative and helping to amplify the message that Blockchain is not just about tokens, but that it is confidence, transparency and transformation.
So, although this year’s elections will continue without the integration of Blockchain, the conversation has begun. And that matters. For builders, believers and defenders in the blockchain space, thanks. Our work continues, and the next choice could be the one that trust is not only promised but cryptographically guaranteed.
This opinion article is published in bitpins: a lost opportunity, but a spark for the future of transparent elections
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