E-Voting Platform Enables Vote Based on Blockchain in Switzerland

Supporting the transition to digital democracy, e-Vote is a solution that, due to its blockchain nature, makes voting instantaneous, anonymous, immutable, transparent and auditable.

Two applications:

Hold state, municipal or corporate voting with e-Vote

• Set-up a new ballot, inform participants about it and process the results within minutes
• Save money on operational costs and time
• Engage more people by offering an instant and secure way to vote

Vote electronically with e-Vote

• Obtain a digital ID
• Log in into the system with it
• Get your unique set of keys generated
• Vote!
• Access the results and verify your vote was counted and correct

Luxoft e-voting platform

“Luxoft is proud to have an opportunity to work together with the city of Zug to explore various blockchain applications,” said Vasily Suvorov, Chief Technology Officer at Luxoft. “As Europe’s leading supporter of blockchain, Zug already accepts cryptocurrency for services, has digitized ID registrations built on the blockchain, and now we have helped them create and try the means to safely and securely move voting online.”

Luxoft built the permissioned blockchain based solution e-Vote, including the platform itself, software and algorithms on Hyperledger Fabric. This was then integrated with Zug’s Ethereum-based digital ID registration application, enabled by uPort, to allow residents to cast votes on the blockchain. The solution uses an innovative encryption technology that on one hand anonymizes the votes and on the other hand allows tamper-proof tally and secure audit.

With help from the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts, AWS and n’cloud.swiss, the platform is deployed on three different data centers in the cloud: two in Switzerland and one in Ireland. By distributing the data into three different data centers, security and data loss risks are distributed geographically, making the system more robust. What’s more, the platform can permanently delete voting data within an agreed time, in accordance with Swiss law.

“There is a concern with e-voting as it is a fundamental mechanism for direct democracy,” said Suvorov. “As a result, we believe this technology cannot be owned by a single company. We will make the e-voting platform open source so people can understand what makes up the technology and how it works, ensuring full transparency. Looking ahead, our alliance will encourage more people to develop blockchain-based applications for Governments worldwide.”

Decentralized Voting Box Fundamentals:

1. Digital Identity for anti-fraud protection – Each participant, whether individual or organization, holdsa unique digital id, which enhances privacy without diminishing security.
2. Tamper-proof decentralized data storage – No single entity manages the network, and every node of the system “sees” the whole and complete voting history at all times. It is impossible to falsify data without everybody knowing it.
3. Integrity due to use of Cryptography – Each personal vote is signed by the private key, which is generated uniquely for each voter and each poll.

• Eliminating the need for a proxy voter, the solution empowers the shareholder directly enabling the ability to vote from anywhere at any time the polls are open
• Shareholders identities and votes remain anonymous, can be queried by themselves to validate that their voice has been accounted for
• Voting system provisions votes to shareholders based on number of shares owned or managed
• Handles complex elections, such as multiple choice, multiple weight option

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“We‘ve focused on communicating the value of the technology, privacy and verifiability aspects, as well as ease of use,” says Vasily Suvorov, CTO of Swiss IT firm Luxoft, which built the Zug e-voting system. “Our deployment did not require a public intrusion test, and successfully delivered the requirements.”

The e-Vote system is an open-source, permissioned distributed ledger technology (DLT) solution built on Hyperledger Fabric that anonymizes votes while providing tamper-proof tallying and secure audits. Because the votes are recorded on a blockchain maintained on a number of servers, they cannot be tampered with after the fact.

Suvorov says his company’s system could be a better choice for Swiss e-voting, which he has in the past called “a fundamental mechanism for direct democracy.” Direct democracy is strong in Switzerland, which votes on constitutional changes, accepting or rejecting new laws, and popular referendums several times a year. A recent government survey found nearly 70 percent of its citizens support e-voting.

Suvorov points out that Luxoft’s blockchain-based e-Vote system is only half of the technology tested in the Zug pilot, which also relied on a mobile voting app built on an Ethereum-based digital ID platform built by uPort, a ConsenSys company. “The goal [was] to understand how end-to-end technology—e-ID and blockchain—would work in a realistic setting,” he says. The Swiss Post system also incorporates a secure digital ID system.

“An e-voting system is a complex software solution and each of its components has to be properly verified,” Suvorov told Modern Consensus. “The only way to achieve progress and ensure e-voting on the blockchain or any other public services system will be secure is to make the systems openly available, drive adoption via controlled pilots, and encourage peer review.”

This Project is Live – Researched by Antony July 2023