Democracy is defined as a system of government by the whole population or all the eligible members of a state, typically through elected representatives. This makes election a very important aspect of human existence.

Weakness of existing models

The struggle for power and control has seen the weaknesses of existing methods of the electoral processes being explored, exposing the system to the plague of accusations of illegitimacy.

Since the advent of the Blockchain and immutable data technology, there have been innovations of voting systems claiming to make it trustless, transparent and non-tamperable. However, no matter how close to perfection a system may appear, it must have its critics.

Human nature

This opinion is expressed by Blockchain expert, Daniel Maloney. Maloney tells Cointelegraph that he is optimistic of the mainstream adoption of the Blockchain voting system in the future, identifying human attitude as the main setback against this innovation.

Maloney says:

“People will distrust any voting platform, no matter what, even if it's a perfect system. It's human nature to spin untrue narratives and conspiracy theories based not on fact, but cognitive bias.”

Liquid democracy

Bitcoin Blockchain Specialist, Bjorn Bjercke sees the eventual adoption Blockchain voting as an inevitable phenomenon. Bjercke forecasts a gradual implementation of the process from smaller settings like voting on "America’s got talent" or "Idol". He also tells Cointelegraph about efforts that he has made towards a proof of concept project with one of the largest TV broadcasters in Norway for just such a case.

Bjercke says: “Governments are slow, so I think Blockchain needs a much broader use and acceptance before they will embrace the development of a POC for governments elections on representative democracy like we have today. But here comes the twist. When you change the system you can change society.”

He adds:

“In 20-30 years from now, you will experience liquid democracy. With the use of Blockchain, we will be able to give our votes on the issues that concern us and give away our votes on the issues that do not concern us much. This will effectively give us a hybrid between direct democracy and represented democracy aka liquid democracy.”

Blercke continues by saying that the technical aspects are already in existence, therefore the only barrier that remains is time and acceptance. He also notes that by the time governments will be ready, the systems may not look like the systems we have today, but will, however, have very similar concepts.
He also identifies Bitnation, Ouishare and The 2030 initiatives as participants in the innovative cycle of Blockchain voting.

Voting innovation

Another example of Blockchain voting innovation is an acclaimed decentralized application platform designed to allow more efficient mining and enabling dApp developers to create more powerful applications and innovations, VoteLock.

Christopher Franko is the brains behind the Expanse Project, FrankoCoin, Borderless Charities, Int. and Borderless Tech.

Franko tells Cointelegraph:

“Participating in the Alpha program at Collision allows us to get great exposure for VoteLock™ on a truly global platform. It has the potential to change the dynamics of future elections around the world. PITCH is the startup competition at Collision that brings together 108 of the world’s leading early-stage startups for a live on-stage battle.”

According to the company, VoteLock™ is a transparent and immutable voting booth for open democracies. It is a voting platform that provides a facility for voting on the Blockchain, storing the votes forever and tamper-proof. VoteLock runs on the community-managed Expanse Blockchain.

Collusion 2017

Cristopher Franko is set to be featured in the program of Collision 2017 that claims to be America’s fastest growing tech conference.

With over 20,000 attendees from more than 100 countries and created by the team behind Web Summit, this year’s event will be held on May 2 - 4, 2017 in New Orleans and will feature numerous speakers from different parts of the world.