Minor Project

VoteChain
What is a Blockchain?
• A blockchain is essentially a digital ledger of transactions that is duplicated and
distributed across the entire network of computer systems on the blockchain.
• Each block in the chain contains several transactions, and every time a new transaction
occurs on the blockchain, a record of that transaction is added to every participant’s
ledger.
• The decentralized database managed by multiple participants is known as Distributed
Ledger Technology (DLT).
• The most popular application of blockchain are cryptocurrencies. The most popular
cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, is the topic of a great discussion and a huge economic asset.
 Do we need a Decentralized Voting Mechanism?
• The number one feature of blockchain is data integrity. A single place is not responsible for
storing all the data and a copy of the data is stored at every node. It is hard to compromise the
copy of data at every node.
• At the scale of countries, there are often doubts about the rigor of the voting process. Most of
the issues are due to elections being conducted by a central authority.
• At a smaller scale, voting also suffers from a lot of inefficiencies.
• In schools and colleges, the voting for the elections of student/teacher unions is often under
doubt and are plagued by inefficiencies.
VoteChain - Vision
• VoteChain will be a shared, immutable ledger that facilitates the process of recording
and tracking votes.
• It will be a decentralized voting system whose architecture is borrowed from
blockchain.
• A few blockchain based solutions already exist but they are either excessively
centralized or greatly limited in capability.
• VoteChain aims to provide a platform which is completely decentralized and can
overcome most of the shortcomings of other solutions.
 VoteChain – Architecture Overview
• The project aims to build a robust, decentralized mechanism so that decisions can be made, and
voting can be done without a need for any centralized authority.
• VoteChain will borrow several concepts from cryptocurrencies – digital tokens, wallets,
consensus mechanisms – proof of stake, proof of work.
• The most important part of the architecture is the assumption that the majority votes for the
correct option. In other words, the correct decision is the one for which the maximum number
of people voted.
• VoteChain will have a native token of the chain and another temporary token indicative of
voting rights (or votes).
• The native token will be an economic asset and will need to be staked to obtain the vote tokens.
• People who vote for the incorrect option will lose their staked tokens, thereby promoting the
truthfulness.
Applications
• Validating crowdsourced data
• Social media censorship without a central authority to decide censorship
• Validating data without central authority

In essence, VoteChain will be a handy tool to conduct voting where the ballot does not
need to be private.
Minor Project Outcomes
• A research article detailing the implementation for the vision of VoteChain.
• A deep understanding of Blockchain.
Relevant Literature and Resources
• Secure Digital Voting System based on Blockchain Technology:
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/325096329_Secure_Digital_Voting_System_B
ased_on_Blockchain_Technology
• Bitcoin whitepaper: https://bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf
• https://github.com/hamsheed-salamut/blockchain-poll-simulator