The Libertarian Party of Texas will today log the results of a wide range of ballot initiatives on three separate blockchains, the most recent in a line of projects integrating the technology into the voting process.
Results of everything from ballot initiatives proposed on the spot to the selection of the state’s US presidential electors will be logged on the blockchains in what a party leader says is a step toward politicians being held accountable to voters in a new way.
John Wilford, treasurer of the Libertarian Party of Texas, told CoinDesk: "The idea is that after the balloting is collected, the records will be uploaded to the blockchain for future generations and accountability." At the two-day event, which kicks off today in San Antonio, Texas, votes by 250 delegates and 100 alternatives on all of the state’s nominations will be logged on the bitcoin blockchain, a private blockchain created by Libertarian Party partner Blockchain Technologies Corporation (BTC), as well as the Florincoin blockchain.
"Every ballot is going to be logged in Florincoin," said Nick Spanos, founder of BTC. "We also hash all that out and put it on the bitcoin blockchain. But on the Florincoin, you can read every single ballot."
Spanos said he was attracted to Florincoin for the project because of its metadata limit of 528 bytes, compared to bitcoin’s 80 bytes. The extra space makes it perfect for storing ballot information, he said.
Joseph Fiscella, who joined Florincoin after its June 2013 debut, told CoinDesk: "Florincoin was purposely created for data storage so developers will always support the data, while other blockchains were made for value exchanges." On the convention floor
To make the idea of using a blockchain less daunting to the convention attendees, paper ballots will be used to actually mark the votes. Each ballot will then be […]
