I am investigating a solution for a voting system, obviously keeping votes secure and free from fraud etc. The brief I have been given is pretty much assuming a typical web interface which can be viewed on various types of device, desktop/mobile etc. The ability to download data via CSV file so non tech users can easily view and understand the data. I’m interested in responding to the brief with the idea of blockchain voting using holochain.
Could holochain be leveraged to provide a suitable solution to record and extract voting data in a way which gives voters confidence in the system?
The team I work with normally work with Linux/Apache/Mysql/PHP so Holo would be new to them. I would need to factor all of this in before suggesting suitable technologies.
When an html page is presented to the user and they submit their vote, how would this get written to the holo blockchain, and then read back using typical web technologies?
Hi, I’m interested in creating an app that has this voting feature as well. What I’d do is create an hApp for the voter to download which generates a voter DNA and connects with a host network (based on holo). There’d be security features added as needed but since its a p2p network it’s more secure and the DNA aspect of holochain allows voter verifiability. I could be wrong, please feel free to correct me on anything you notice. I’m also looking for people to partner up with a make this into a startup. Let me know if you’re interested.
I have been hoping to find people interested in building a good voting hApp on Holochain for a long time. There’s a lot of feedback I could give but I’ll start with one important point that can get quite complicated and broad in scope. It’s just as important to be able to audit an election with full transparency and verify with certainty that votes are counted as cast. As part of this, I would like to see a voting hApp give the voter him/herself the ability to check that that their own vote was 1) actually counted and 2) it was counted as cast. This would need to be done without sacrificing privacy in any way, unless the voter decided to share how they voted. This is not possible in any current election systems and I’m hoping that Holochain’s unique technology can be used to accomplish this… it would be a huge leap in election integrity. It would improve confidence in elections and help eliminate various problems in how votes are handled after a voter actually votes. There are many ways to game the system during vote processing. Audits too can be (and often are) gamed in most election systems. In fact, most so called “audits” are basically meaningless because they don’t actually recount votes. I know this may surprise people but it is true. I’m hoping an hApp could be built on Holochain to eliminate these problems. I want to emphasize that the ability to VERIFY an election is just as important as making it easy for people to vote and I’m betting that Holochain technology will give novel ways to address this. We must be able to verify that votes are counted as cast. Even if a vote is “securely” cast doesn’t mean it is handled securely as that vote in processed. There are all kinds of ways to game the system after a vote is cast and then game the audit that might show this. I believe Holochain’s unique technology could help eliminate these problems. It’s important to be able to verify that votes were counted as cast for entire races with 100% certainty and eliminate the various ways to game the system/audits… but I’d also like the added ability for an individual voter to be able verify their own vote was counted as cast.
Pelican, please try to break up your paragraphs makes it easier to read..
I just signed in today for the first time because a friend of mine suggested I checkout holochain.
I’ve been trying to build my own voting app for 10+ but haven’t found many to connect with on the topic to work together with, so it’s awesome to see others with the same idea that are interested in making it happen.
I’m new here, but I’ve thought about the problems a lot and I’d like to share my complete idea, but it’d probably take more then a couple posts plus my demo.
But even if you have the best voting system that has integrity and available and doesn’t allow tampering or exploits, you need informed voters that are intelligent about the subject they are voting upon, or they will follow whatever everyone else is voting. I have a system that does this by combining personal votes joined together into a common vote ranking, and doesn’t limit what you can vote on, an anything and everything system I’ve named ‘pushvote’.
I’m all for helping to get a voting app together, I’ve never programmed in rust or developed using holochain, but I’d love to get started.
I’m not sure what you mean by “pushvote.” Could you explain that more? Do you mean ranked choice voting?
Yes, my thoughts were thrown out without much organization. The main point I wanted to make is that I believe a voting hApp should focus on making sure votes are counted as cast, not just making it easy and secure for a person to vote. As part of this, I’m suggesting the ability for a voter to be able to check to make sure his/her vote actually countered as cast. This would be completely novel to any voting system I believe and I think Holochain technology may make this possible. There should also be a lot of thought put into being able to do audits with full transparency.
I’d be open to forming some sort of voting hApp group, potentially as simple as creating a voting hApp section on the Holochain Forum. I’m also interested in putting together a Holochain book club. I posted about this on Reddit but I’ll be sure to post that to the Holochain forum some time soon. My original thought was to ask if a programmer might be interested in creating a forum hApp (similar to Usenet with perhaps a few more options) that could be used for thw book club but also for other purposes too… perhaps a voting hApp group?
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