Anonymous voting using distributed ledger-assisted secure multi-party computation

High voter turnout in elections and referendums is desirable to ensure a robust democracy. Secure electronic voting is a vision for the future of elections and referendums. Such a system can counteract factors hindering strong voter turnout such as the requirement of physical presence during limited...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Applied network science Vol. 9; no. 1; pp. 51 - 25
Main Authors: Schiedermeier, Maximilian, Hasan, Omar, Mayer, Tobias, Brunie, Lionel, Kosch, Harald
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: Cham Springer International Publishing 01.12.2024
Springer Nature B.V
Springer
SpringerOpen
Subjects:
Anonymity
Blockchain
Complexity
Computation
Computer Appl. in Social and Behavioral Sciences
Computer Science
Confidentiality
Design factors
Distributed ledger
E-voting
Elections
Online voting
Referendums
Simulation and Modeling
SMPC
Transparency
Trusted third parties
Voter behavior
Voters
Transparency
Distributed ledger
Blockchain
E-voting
Anonymity
Trustless networks
SMPC
ISSN:2364-8228, 2364-8228
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:High voter turnout in elections and referendums is desirable to ensure a robust democracy. Secure electronic voting is a vision for the future of elections and referendums. Such a system can counteract factors hindering strong voter turnout such as the requirement of physical presence during limited hours at polling stations. However, this vision brings transparency and confidentiality requirements that render the design of such solutions challenging. Specifically, the counting implementation must support reproducibility, and the choice of individual voters must remain confidential. In this paper, we propose and evaluate a novel referendum protocol that ensures transparency, confidentiality, and integrity, in trustless networks. The protocol is built by combining secure multi-party computation and distributed ledger technology, e.g., a Blockchain. The persistence and immutability of the protocol communication allow verifiability of the referendum outcome by any participant. Voters therefore do not need to trust third parties. We provide a formal description and conduct a thorough security evaluation of our proposal.
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ISSN:2364-8228
2364-8228
DOI:10.1007/s41109-024-00650-2