I wish the cryptophiles would study how real world elections work before floating their ideas.
Votebook proposes using a blockchain as a tamper evident (immutable) audit log. Because voters sign-in chronologically, recording votes in order removes the secret ballot. Votebook's proposal is to group up multiple into "blocks" and randomize the order within a block.
Randomizing the order of the votes in an audit log would simulate the secure one-way hash of dropping your paper ballot into a ballot box.
Poll sites are "bursty". During rush hour, lots of voters, so blocks will span small time windows. During midday, blocks will be large.
1 - How large must these blocks be to guard the secret ballot? Using some differential privacy mojo might determine they have to be 100 votes. I'm skeptical. It's problem even today with poll sites and postal ballots. Situations like small precincts or low turnout. In which case, Votebook is adding complexity without any real world benefit.
2 - What happens with the vote data as blocks are being built? So now this system has plaintext data in memory awaiting processing. Oops, power outage. Oops, software bug.
3 - Votebook does not solve the problem of properly, accurately recording the ballot as the voter cast it.
4 - Votebook will be cryto-based, necessitating further outsourcing our elections to vendors.
5 - I would never be able to explain how Votebook works to my mother (Jane average).
Votebook proposes using a blockchain as a tamper evident (immutable) audit log. Because voters sign-in chronologically, recording votes in order removes the secret ballot. Votebook's proposal is to group up multiple into "blocks" and randomize the order within a block.
Randomizing the order of the votes in an audit log would simulate the secure one-way hash of dropping your paper ballot into a ballot box.
Poll sites are "bursty". During rush hour, lots of voters, so blocks will span small time windows. During midday, blocks will be large.
1 - How large must these blocks be to guard the secret ballot? Using some differential privacy mojo might determine they have to be 100 votes. I'm skeptical. It's problem even today with poll sites and postal ballots. Situations like small precincts or low turnout. In which case, Votebook is adding complexity without any real world benefit.
2 - What happens with the vote data as blocks are being built? So now this system has plaintext data in memory awaiting processing. Oops, power outage. Oops, software bug.
3 - Votebook does not solve the problem of properly, accurately recording the ballot as the voter cast it.
4 - Votebook will be cryto-based, necessitating further outsourcing our elections to vendors.
5 - I would never be able to explain how Votebook works to my mother (Jane average).