Image by Davidstankiewicz
Ukraine has been out in front of the blockchain revolution, being one of the first countries in the world to explore using the technology for record keeping, and now possibly – voting. Eastern Europeans in general have been fascinated with the developments in the space, possibly due to the possibilities of getting out from under corrupt systems that are legacies from Soviet times.
Oleksandr Stelmakh, head of the State Register at the Central Electoral Commission of Ukraine, appeared pleased with the ongoing tests, writing in the post that they are “continu[ing] a series of experiments applying blockchain technology within electoral voting.”
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Stelmakh noted that they created a test vote using 28 nodes with the NEM blockchain “several weeks ago,” adding that “voting is still open and anyone can take part it in.”
The trial, which came about as a result of a partnership with the local NEM Ukraine, exclusively involves a testnet with test NEM tokens “kindly given by a representative of the NEM Foundation in Ukraine,” Anton Bosenko.
On the basis of current rates, Stelmakh calculated the cost of installing blockchain voting in each police station in the country would be around the equivalent of $1,227 per implementation. He writes that this is a “small price to pay” in return for immutable vote data protection, reported CoinTelegraph.
Russia is also placing large amounts of investment money behind blockchain technology. Sanctioned countries see the technology as a way to get around Western sanctions.
