A small French community is looking to leverage the power of the Blockchain to vote in consultation for a long awaited road project.
The commune of Verneuil-sur-Seine is seeking consensus for a long awaited 50-year old road project that is between three towns. Verneuil-sur-Seine’s official website says that the commune as well as two other neighboring towns in Vernouillet and Chapet, are allowing Blockchain based voting.
Voting to decide fate of road project
Residents of the commune, as well as, those in neighboring towns will be able to vote through the Yvelinoise-based startup, Avosvotes from Oct. 1–8. Voting will see the people decide on the fate of the road bypass project between Orgeval and Les Mureaux towns as well. A favorable vote will see the project progress while a negative one will see it shut.
The Verneuil-sur-Seine website further states that consultations between the three towns would be done extensively, and simultaneously to ensure the best results are achieved. The Blockchain voting app that will be in use, reportedly identifies, and provides certificates stored on the Tezos Blockchain as proof of votes cast through smart contracts.
Blockchain to guarantee integrity of the vote
Avosvotes CEO Florian Ribière said that the voting system would ensure that voting is done in a transparent manner.
“In Verneuil-sur-Seine, the decentralized and secure voting evidence on the Blockchain resulting from French researchers at Tezos will make it possible to guarantee the sincerity of the ballot. The vote will thus be 100% secure and each voter will be able to check that their vote has been taken into account during the digital count.”
Blockchain voting prospects
Though blockchain voting has been touted as the future of the ballot, the process has struggled before in places like Italy. A 2017 blockchain voting process in the country led to higher costs, and delayed results. There were also reports of blockchain voting hitches in Russia. It has also however seen success in other places like the Michigan Democratic Party State nomination. More about the possible future of blockchain voting will be drawn from the result of this election.
Image courtesy of Pexels