Will blockchain save democracy? Today this - "not the best, but better hasn't been invented" - system is in crisis. This can be seen by everyone: political scientists, citizens and politicians themselves. Democracy as a system has had an uphill battle in recent years. The 2016 US presidential election was marked by manipulation and fake news. It doesn't matter whether you appreciate Donald Trump or not, but his presidential campaign was extremely harsh. Some experts on the subject believe that it was even the harshest in the history of the United States. Elections in Poland? Nowadays, social media are flooded with fake news and misrepresentations (e.g. a few days ago the topic about Law and Justice party wanting to cut off fundraising for WOŚP). All this may drive citizens to the polls (the more emotions, the higher the turnout), but on the other hand it weakens the foundations of the system in which discussion and compromise no longer count. Blockchain in defense of democracy The next elections in Poland are in just over a week. In a few days we will publish more on blockchain in this issue, but today it is worth considering whether the blockchain network can actually help us save democracy in some way. Blockchain voting can help in the matter of holding fair and tamper-proof elections. Even pilot projects of this kind have already been initiated in several countries. All in order to test the reliability of such a system. Recently, Uruguay announced that it wants to go in the direction of blockchain voting, specifically decentralized applications (Dapp) from Aeternity. Surprisingly, even Russia, which doesn't have the best record among fans of people's governments, in an effort to reduce voter fraud, decided to test blockchain voting during local elections in Moscow. Samson Mow, Director of Strategy at Blockstream, recently appeared on "Magical Crypto Friend" to discuss several topics, including blockchain-based voting. He was of the opinion that blockchain-based voting has several advantages over traditional forms. However, he added that much still depends on the maturity of the voters: "Blockchain is simply registering things, if we put in garbage, we get garbage." In short, Mow was of the opinion that technology can, however, help make elections transparent, but it will not make a miracle happen. Still much in the hands of voters and politicians. Another important point raised during the interview was the issue of voter identification. Such an elaborate system would not only register votes, but perhaps it would somehow force the participants in the celebration of democracy to take things seriously. Voting would be anonymous, but the very effect that our data, though encrypted, is in some great database could give interesting and positive results for the system. Another issue is data security. A few years ago the citizens of Bielsko-Biała could start worrying about their data leaked from the system related to the civic budget. What's more, a similar scandal, showing that such local elections can be rigged, broke out recently in Gdansk. Fake news It's worth adding that new technology can help defeat fake news. "The News Provenance Project is experimenting in this space with the goal of creating an industry-wide solution that works for publishers large and small, open and closed platforms and, most importantly, [serves] people," - The New York Times wrote in its pages, mentioning the project, which will help level fake news from public life. "All blockchains offer mechanisms for sharing information between entities in ways that we believe are necessary to establish and preserve the provenance of digital files. (...) Some techniques are simple: recycling old photos, selective cropping and editing, slowing down and speeding up video, and so on. Other techniques are more advanced, involving the creation of 'synthetic' media such as deepfakes." - they added. Tags Blockchain blockchain democracy blockchain elections democracy blockchain voting
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