Assuring Anonymity and Privacy in Electronic Voting with Distributed Technologies Based on Blockchain
Anonymity and privacy in the electoral process are mandatory features found in any democratic society, and many authors consider these fundamental civil liberties and rights. During the election process, every voter must be identified as eligible, but after casting a vote, the voter must stay anonym...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2022-05-01
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| Series: | Applied Sciences |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3417/12/11/5477 |
| _version_ | 1827665634084782080 |
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| author | Vehbi Neziri Isak Shabani Ramadan Dervishi Blerim Rexha |
| author_facet | Vehbi Neziri Isak Shabani Ramadan Dervishi Blerim Rexha |
| author_sort | Vehbi Neziri |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Anonymity and privacy in the electoral process are mandatory features found in any democratic society, and many authors consider these fundamental civil liberties and rights. During the election process, every voter must be identified as eligible, but after casting a vote, the voter must stay anonymous, assuring voter and vote unlinkability. Voter anonymity and privacy are the most critical issues and challenges of almost all electronic voting systems. However, vote immutability must be assured as well, which is a problem in many new democracies, and Blockchain as a distributed technology meets this data immutability requirement. Our paper analyzes current solutions in Blockchain and proposes a new approach through the combination of two different Blockchains to achieve privacy and anonymity. The first Blockchain will be used for key management, while the second will store anonymous votes. The encrypted vote is salted with a nonce, hashed, and finally digitally signed with the voter’s private key, and by mixing the timestamp of votes and shuffling the order of cast votes, the chances of linking the vote to the voter will be reduced. Adopting this approach with Blockchain technology will significantly transform the current voting process by guaranteeing anonymity and privacy. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-10T01:30:51Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-a91873f99f5c446ca94a63daf40a2a99 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2076-3417 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-10T01:30:51Z |
| publishDate | 2022-05-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Applied Sciences |
| spelling | doaj.art-a91873f99f5c446ca94a63daf40a2a992023-11-23T13:42:24ZengMDPI AGApplied Sciences2076-34172022-05-011211547710.3390/app12115477Assuring Anonymity and Privacy in Electronic Voting with Distributed Technologies Based on BlockchainVehbi Neziri0Isak Shabani1Ramadan Dervishi2Blerim Rexha3Faculty of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Prishtina, 10000 Pristina, KosovoFaculty of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Prishtina, 10000 Pristina, KosovoFaculty of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Prishtina, 10000 Pristina, KosovoFaculty of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Prishtina, 10000 Pristina, KosovoAnonymity and privacy in the electoral process are mandatory features found in any democratic society, and many authors consider these fundamental civil liberties and rights. During the election process, every voter must be identified as eligible, but after casting a vote, the voter must stay anonymous, assuring voter and vote unlinkability. Voter anonymity and privacy are the most critical issues and challenges of almost all electronic voting systems. However, vote immutability must be assured as well, which is a problem in many new democracies, and Blockchain as a distributed technology meets this data immutability requirement. Our paper analyzes current solutions in Blockchain and proposes a new approach through the combination of two different Blockchains to achieve privacy and anonymity. The first Blockchain will be used for key management, while the second will store anonymous votes. The encrypted vote is salted with a nonce, hashed, and finally digitally signed with the voter’s private key, and by mixing the timestamp of votes and shuffling the order of cast votes, the chances of linking the vote to the voter will be reduced. Adopting this approach with Blockchain technology will significantly transform the current voting process by guaranteeing anonymity and privacy.https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3417/12/11/5477privacyanonymityelectronic votingBlockchainvotedistributed technologies |
| spellingShingle | Vehbi Neziri Isak Shabani Ramadan Dervishi Blerim Rexha Assuring Anonymity and Privacy in Electronic Voting with Distributed Technologies Based on Blockchain Applied Sciences privacy anonymity electronic voting Blockchain vote distributed technologies |
| title | Assuring Anonymity and Privacy in Electronic Voting with Distributed Technologies Based on Blockchain |
| title_full | Assuring Anonymity and Privacy in Electronic Voting with Distributed Technologies Based on Blockchain |
| title_fullStr | Assuring Anonymity and Privacy in Electronic Voting with Distributed Technologies Based on Blockchain |
| title_full_unstemmed | Assuring Anonymity and Privacy in Electronic Voting with Distributed Technologies Based on Blockchain |
| title_short | Assuring Anonymity and Privacy in Electronic Voting with Distributed Technologies Based on Blockchain |
| title_sort | assuring anonymity and privacy in electronic voting with distributed technologies based on blockchain |
| topic | privacy anonymity electronic voting Blockchain vote distributed technologies |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3417/12/11/5477 |
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