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| Swiss Post is secretly testing a blockchain voting system |
The USPS has launched a project to secretly develop and test a blockchain-based mobile voting system ahead of the 2020 general election to test technology that government cybersecurity agencies say cannot fully process votes.
A US Postal Service spokesperson said the system was not introduced into a direct election and was scrapped in 2019.
Previously, cybersecurity researchers from the University of Colorado tested the system in fake elections and found various ways to make it vulnerable to hacker attacks. United State. The Postal Service requires the university to sign a nondisclosure agreement to prevent it from naming relevant institutions.
The project was implemented without the interference of federal agencies that pay more attention to the elections. After Russia's intervention in 2016, these institutions are making efforts to make voting safer.
These efforts mainly focus on the use of ballot papers so that voters can verify that their ballot papers have been registered correctly and that there is a paper file for the listeners to use. There is something missing in every mobile phone or internet based system.
The secrecy of the Post's mobile electoral program has shocked officials and election security advocates who fear it could spark conspiracy theories and erode public confidence in the democratic process.
Since the 2020 election, these fears have grown exponentially, bolstered by baseless allegations of election fraud by former President Donald Trump and his supporters.
“It is a shame that government agencies are conducting research into the security of voting on the blockchain, which shows just how insecure it is,” said Susan Greenhalger, Senior Election Security Adviser to Government Free Speech. Then the results were kept secret and the public and officials were denied for more than two years.
USPS Introduced Blockchain Voting System Before 2020
The post does not play a role in conducting elections. However, the Postal Department is responsible for managing the voting slips submitted.
The agency declined to share long-term plans for a blockchain-based voting system. Such a system would reduce the burden of mail voting, especially for foreign military voters. But it also reduces the revenue growth the agency typically gets during election season.
In August 2020, Swiss Post received a public patent for this concept. However, it has not previously announced that it has built or tested a prototype system.
The Postal Service system enables people to vote on online orders, such as adding items to an online shopping cart or completing online surveys.
These voices are designed to be anonymous and recorded on multiple digital sites at the same time. These numeric records are used as controls to check the accuracy of other records. This is the same method that cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin use to keep transactions accurately recorded.
A US Postal Service spokesperson said the agency's software patents were exploratory and had not been transferred to a production model. The ability of the blockchain to increase the security of digital transactions is a concept we are exploring along the way to better meet current and future customer needs and bridge the gap between the physical and digital worlds. But we do not intend to develop this system.