This is a split from a conversation currently going on in World Building.
I decided to start this thread to keep from derailing that one further.
The issue is whether or not a secure system to allow people to vote online from home can be created. Here's my proposal:
Sorry if this is a derail, but has anyone here used bitcoin? It's an online currency that basically works by having all its users back up a ledger or "blockchain" that uses a complicated cryptographic scheme to make it extremely difficult to alter and pass off as the real thing. Millions of dollars have been exchanged with it. Bitcoins have been stolen, through fraud or by stealing people's "passwords", but no one has succeeded in breaking the system itself.
I wonder if something similar could be set up or voting? Just give everyone a private key anonymously, and let anyone who wants to donate their computation power to back up the blockchain. Keep a database of the private keys that have been assigned and only accept votes with their digital signatures. The voting record would be decentralized, so there would be no central server to hack, and as an added bonus, anyone could do their own recount by examining the blockchain.
That probably didn't make a whole lot of sense, but if you use bitcoin you can see how such a system works.
Major Tom pointed out that the fact that "passwords" (private keys) in bitcoin can be stolen if the user isn't careful to keep them in a safe place is a risk factor. I feel that multi-factor authentication is the solution to that. A voter can sign up for additional security measures, like a confirmation email or sms text, or even one-time password generator.
Furthermore, because of the online decentralized nature of this hypothetical system, a voter would be able to immediately see if a fraudulent vote has been issued in his name, and would be able to dispute it if he caught it in time.
This is a split from a conversation currently going on in World Building
.
I decided to start this thread to keep from derailing that one further.
The issue is whether or not a secure system to allow people to vote online from home can be created. Here's my proposal:
I wonder if something similar could be set up or voting? Just give everyone a private key anonymously, and let anyone who wants to donate their computation power to back up the blockchain. Keep a database of the private keys that have been assigned and only accept votes with their digital signatures. The voting record would be decentralized, so there would be no central server to hack, and as an added bonus, anyone could do their own recount by examining the blockchain.
That probably didn't make a whole lot of sense, but if you use bitcoin you can see how such a system works.
Major Tom pointed out that the fact that "passwords" (private keys) in bitcoin can be stolen if the user isn't careful to keep them in a safe place is a risk factor. I feel that multi-factor authentication is the solution to that. A voter can sign up for additional security measures, like a confirmation email or sms text, or even one-time password generator.
Furthermore, because of the online decentralized nature of this hypothetical system, a voter would be able to immediately see if a fraudulent vote has been issued in his name, and would be able to dispute it if he caught it in time.
edited 2nd Nov '12 10:21:13 PM by Topazan