Regardless of its historical past of safety and technical points, blockchain voting platform Voatz has reportedly been deployed efficiently on the
Regardless of its historical past of safety and technical points, blockchain voting platform Voatz has reportedly been deployed efficiently on the Michigan Democratic Social gathering State Nominating Conference.
Greater than 1,900 delegates on the digital conference, held from Aug. 29-30, have been in a position to nominate candidates utilizing Voatz for the state’s Supreme Court docket, state Board of Schooling, and boards at state universities. The occasion was held on-line attributable to restrictions brought on by the pandemic.
“There have been so many distinctive challenges with this yr’s conference due to the pandemic, however the Voatz platform eased lots of our considerations,” stated Chrisy Jensen, Govt Director of the Michigan Democratic Social gathering.
“Voatz enabled our delegates to be verified remotely and take part by their smartphones.”
That is the fourth time the blockchain-based voting system has been utilized by the Michigan Democratic Social gathering, however the first rollout at a digital conference within the time of COVID-19. Whereas the app has facilitated completely different elections throughout West Virginia, Oregon, Utah, and Colorado, Voatz isn’t with out controversy.
In February, the expertise was used in the course of the Iowa Democratic presidential caucuses, however glitches within the app brought on a number of days’ delay to find out the successful candidates.
The Massachusetts-based firm has additionally been met with public criticism for an absence of transparency, notably in relation to knowledge safety. Researchers on the Massachusetts Institute of Expertise launched a report earlier this yr by which they recognized safety vulnerabilities inside the app’s core framework.
These bugs might probably enable unhealthy actors to compromise current vote tallies and the person privateness of customers. Following the discharge of the examine in March, West Virginia introduced that it will briefly halt its use of Voatz for any future elections.
Nevertheless, the expertise was subsequently used in the course of the Utah Republican state conference in April. Voatz CEO Nimit Sawhney said the voting app “carried out as anticipated” and processed 93% of registered delegate votes.