Some interesting news coming out of Thailand is that The National Electronics and computer technology center (NECTEC) of Thailand have developed a blockchain technology to aid in E-voting.
NECTEC is a statutory government organization that operates under the jurisdiction of the National Science and Technology Development Agency as well as the Ministry of Science and Technology. The organization’s main job is promoting the development of computing, electronics, telecommunications and IT.
The blockchain technology developed by NECTEC can reportedly be deployed to work alongside traditional voting as the people of Thailand get more technologically sophisticated over time. According to the statutory body, once 5G is released and eventually adopted in the country, all votes will be connected to the technology.
The head of the Cybersecurity laboratory at NECTEC, Chalee Vorakulpipat, told the Bangkok to post that;
“NECTEC developed blockchain technology for e-voting that can be applied to national, provincial or community elections, as well as business votes such as the Board of directors. The goal is to reduce fraud and maintain data integrity.”
Vorakulpipat added that in order for this system to work; it would require a controller, candidates as well as voters. Before an election commences, the system controller will identify voter identity as well as the qualifications of a candidate. Voters will reportedly be able to vote via email provided they can be verified by mobile camera.
While this has the ability to properly secure elections, make them faster and cheaper, there is still a lot to be done to ensure that every voter has access to a mobile internet connection and identity verification. According to Vorakulpipat, the system could be tested in smaller elections at organizations such as committee boards, universities and committee boards.
Other countries such as the United States have shown an interest in using the Blockchain in their electoral processes as well. After the November 2018 mid-term elections the secretary of state of West Virginia reported a successful trial of mobile blockchain voting for West Virginians in the armed services stationed abroad. The Swiss City of Zug and the Japanese city of Tsukuba have both conducted blockchain trials in municipal elections
