South Korea to Trial Blockchain-Based Voting System

By Swati Kishore

A Blockchain-based voting system will be developed by South Korea’s Ministry of Science and ICT, and it will go on trial in the private sector in December 2018.

South Korea’s National Election Commission and Ministry of Science & ICT are partnering together to develop a Blockchain Technology based voting system by the end of this year. Back in 2013, the National Election Commission of the Asian nation had run an online voting system by the name of K-Voting. Although the K-Voting system has been used by 5.4 million people so far, yet the voting system is marred by fraud and hacking. This has displaced trust in the prevalent voting system in South Korea.

The Blockchain-based voting system is being devised as an attempt to regain the voter’s trust. The said system will deploy Blockchain for authentication of voter’s data, and it will also store the results on the distributed ledger.

Personal computers and mobile applications will be used to conduct the voting process, and data will be saved on Blockchain’s distributed network. Voters will have the option to view the voting results as the process progresses. The voting system will also be utilised in surveys carried out by South Korea’s internet watchdog, the Korea Internet and Security Agency, as well as the Seoul National University’s Blockchain Society.

After the Blockchain trial in the private sector in December, the National Election Commission will be in a better position to decide whether the Blockchain system can be deployed in the online voting process. To further upgrade the voting system, the NEC plans on integrating cutting-edge technologies such as Big Data, IoT, Artificial Intelligence, in the future.

South Korea has been at the forefront when it comes to accepting emerging technologies. Just last month, the country’s capital, Seoul, announcedt the launch of a 100 billion Blockchain Fund which will be utilised in some of the promising startups in the sector. Despite the South Korean government’s initial concerns regarding the risks associated with cryptocurrencies, the country announced in February 2018 that it would not be banning crypto trading.

Swati Kishore

Swati has a keen interest in emerging technologies and she loves to write about them. She loves trance and is also interested in the philosophy of life.

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