Blockchain
San Jose Deputy Metropolis Supervisor Rob Lloyd stated Thursday he envisions a future the place blockchain know-how is used to vote in metropolis, state and even federal elections.
“The 40-hour workweek, employee rights, [worker’s] comp protections — these normally begin on the native degree after which work their manner as much as state and get adopted by federal — I feel the identical sample goes to occur with blockchain-driven voting,” Lloyd stated.
He added that zero data proof know-how could possibly be used to make sure voter anonymity, whereas additionally guaranteeing that their vote is perpetually recorded on an immutable digital ledger.
Supply: LinkedIn
Lloyd’s feedback had been captured on a Web3-focused podcast known as “On Chain On Air,” which was hosted by Ashley Spradlin, head of training at Metis, an Ethereum layer-2 rollup. This newest podcast featured Lloyd and College of San Francisco Professor Jonathan Reichental, each of whom are primarily based in and round Silicon Valley.
Reichental, who additionally advises governments about new know-how by means of his agency Human Future, acknowledged the potential of blockchain-based voting. Nonetheless, there’s one large downside, he stated.
“The fact is we’re shifting additional away from digital voting,” Reichental stated. “The challenges which have occurred, or the looks of challenges, has given individuals hesitancy round digital voting.”
“Individuals aren’t prepared for it, and individuals are not going to simply accept it within the brief time period,” he added.
A July 2022 CNN ballot discovered that People’ belief in elections has eroded over time. Shortly after the January sixth assault on the Capitol, 36% of individuals had been “very assured” that elections had been consultant of voters’ needs. A 12 months and a half later, simply 16% had been very assured.
The general public belief dilemma exists with blockchain know-how as effectively. Whereas constructed to create decentralized belief techniques, the myriad human failures behind crypto-adjacent centralized gamers over the previous 12 months have resulted in flagging public notion: Voyager, Celsius, BlockFi, and FTX are only a few examples.
However Reichental stated that falsely conflating crypto hypothesis with and blockchain know-how holds again potential breakthroughs.
“Now we have to be actually clear that these are two separate objects. Blockchain is the know-how, the platform. Crypto is an software that runs on high of blockchain.”
Lloyd pointed to 1 such use of blockchain know-how that has completely nothing to do with crypto as a type of cash: Marriage.
Utah County, Utah has opted for digital marriage certificates, the place {couples} can select to have a file of their authorized union saved on public Ethereum. Moreover, People from any state or locality can get married on-line by means of Utah County.
“Utah, of all locations, took the management place…they usually stated we’re going to permit digital marriages they usually’ve really been unlocking use circumstances for blockchain greater than some other state that I’ve seen,” Lloyd stated.
The state’s service supplier is utilizing Ethereum as a result of it’s “100 instances extra strengthened than any redundant backup system ever devised,” based on its FAQ.
Id administration
One other potential use case for blockchain know-how to conduct authorities enterprise is, what Reichental known as, “self sovereign identification” or SSI.
“[With] SSI identification administration, we don’t ever should get involved with crypto and but, we’re utilizing the perfect of blockchain know-how,” Reichental stated. “We are able to get authenticated with out the recipient figuring out private details about us.”
Presently, to entry most authorities companies, you must log in to a number of websites and bear in mind all of your login credentials. With a digital identification answer in place, Reichental stated coping with paperwork can be simpler as a result of the federal government would merely have the ability to authenticate you thru whichever blockchain it determined to make use of.
Reichental additionally provided up a hypothetical scenario the place an individual will get pulled over by a police officer. Because it stands now, to confirm who you might be, a cop will take your driver’s license again to their automobile.
In that scenario, “you’ve misplaced management of your identification,” he defined. And in our society, you’re compelled at hand over figuring out paperwork to individuals on a regular basis.
“In a correctly applied SSI atmosphere, the cop can take a barcode or QR code, and she or he by no means sees the data, authenticates in opposition to this blockchain atmosphere that’s getting used, comes again and says, ‘sure, this particular person is who they are saying they’re,’” Reichental stated.
Digital marriages, SSI, digital voting and paperless information could possibly be the long run, however based on Lloyd, who is definitely chargeable for administering authorities companies, three standards must be met earlier than blockchain know-how can acquire widespread civic adoption.
It must be secure, at the beginning. Second, vendor platforms want to start adopting crypto as a type of fee. And at last, there must be a regulatory framework, he stated.
“Once we see these three issues, then we’ll know that the trade is at some extent the place we are able to actually drive laborious at it as a result of we’ll have the fundamentals on which we are able to create applications and preserve them and maintain them over time,” Lloyd stated.
