Iowa Election Results Pave Way to Blockchain Technology

Blockchain technology reached a major milestone recently with government elections recorded onto the blockchain for the first time.

Blockchain Technologies Corp., working with the Rand Paul campaign, has recorded the raw reporting results of Iowa caucus precinct captains onto the blockchain. Results were reported to IowaCaucus.net and the links to the official blockchain records are available there as well.

The blockchain technology, that underpins digital currency such as bitcoin, is nothing but a distributed public ledger – the open source P2P internet database with publicly viewable, signed-and-time stamped records that cannot be manipulated, modified, or deleted once entered. These attributes make it the perfect tool to transparently record votes in a tamper-proof way.

Blockchain Technologies Corp. is the company leading this new era of democracy. The company explained that the voting records recorded on the blockchain the day of the election cannot be manipulated later if and when an audit or recount is ordered.

Any fraud or manipulating the records is “mathematically next to impossible under blockchain–based vote tallying”. The permanent, time stamped blockchain records ensure any information added after the election would stand out as such. Auditors would have no difficulty determining if additional records were added later and inquire as to why.

“The 2016 Iowa Caucuses were, inarguably, a historic moment. The Democratic party was split by less than 1%! In such a close race, blockchain-based voting records can eliminate any questions of accuracy. It is easy to imagine a future where all election results are posted onto the blockchain”, the company said.

Blockchain Technologies Corp., a New York-based startup company, focuses on creating solutions for real world issues using blockchain technology. It is working on products such as a blockchain-based voting machine and a system to record important documents (such as a will) into the blockchain. The product created to record election results onto the blockchain is called Votewatcher.com.