Screven County, Georgia made historical past on November 5, 2024 when it grew to become the primary county in america to make use of the Bitcoin blockchain to safeguard the outcomes of its elections.
The Screven County Board of Elections labored with Easy Proof, a U.S. firm that protects digital information utilizing the Bitcoin blockchain, to make sure that their election outcomes couldn’t be altered.
Stacy Scott Mincey, Screven County Election Supervisor, employed Easy Proof to ensure that the dealing with of votes in her county wasn’t known as into query the best way it was in one other Georgia county through the 2020 elections.
“Considered one of my objectives was to do the whole lot I might to ensure that individuals within the county felt safe, that their votes counted, particularly with the heightened considerations round safety and voter fraud,” Mincey advised me in an interview. “Utilizing Easy Proof was only one extra step that we took to ensure that our outcomes couldn’t be tampered with in any method.”
What Easy Proof Does
Easy Proof gained notoriety when its immutable proof service was used to safeguard the outcomes of Guatemala’s most up-to-date presidential election, which was detailed within the documentary Immutable Democracy.
Easy Proof makes use of an open-source protocol known as OpenTimestamps, developed by Peter Todd, a former Bitcoin Core developer.
The protocol permits cryptographic timestamping, which makes use of hash capabilities to protect info on Bitcoin’s immutable ledger. The data is saved within the OP_RETURN operate of a Bitcoin transaction. That is the place the social gathering sending a transaction can embrace arbitrary info, which is analogous to the “memo” house on a bodily examine.
Anybody can then confirm this immutable proof on Easy Proof’s platform or independently in a trustless method through the Bitcoin blockchain. Put a less complicated method, Easy Proof permits the general public to confirm the election outcomes and different official paperwork as soon as they’re secured by the Bitcoin blockchain.
Easy Proof And Screven County
Within the case of the Screven County elections, the knowledge saved on the blockchain was the Election Abstract Experiences, which include vote tallies, and the Assertion of Votes Forged, which gives a county-wide overview of election outcomes and different election particulars.
Carlos Toriello, Elections Lead at Easy Proof, mentioned that his group labored to make it as straightforward as doable for Mincey to guard these paperwork.
“We wished to ensure that this was painless for Stacy,” Toriello advised me in an interview.
He went on to share that every one Mincey needed to do was e-mail the paperwork to Easy Proof’s immutable proof service, which mechanically timestamped the paperwork on the blockchain.
The primary occasion of this timestamping occurred at 7:54 p.m. EST on November 5, 2024 and will be considered through its Easy Proof verification web page.
“Block quantity 869,047 is the primary block in Bitcoin’s chain to include proof of a U.S. election,” mentioned Toriello.
Screven County’s Voting System
Whereas Easy Proof protects voting information, it doesn’t make sure the legitimacy of the votes. Within the U.S., this duty falls on the native board of elections.
“In Georgia, the Secretary of State does an ideal job of constructing positive that the elections are safe,” mentioned Mincey.
“We use machines, however we have now paper ballots, too. So, if there’s an issue, we are able to return and hand depend the paper ballots,” she added.
Mincey went on to share that the machines depend the ballots and produce the aforementioned reviews. Nevertheless, she and her crew have a way of checking that the reviews are not less than largely right.
“Our county does an audit the place we hand depend a portion of the ballots to verify they match what we bought from the machine,” mentioned Mincey. “I believe that is an ideal further step of safety that we have now to ensure that the elections are legitimate.”
How Mincey Discovered Easy Proof
Not solely does Mincey have a deep data of how voting works in her state, however she’s additionally fairly aware of Bitcoin. And it’s truly due to Bitcoin that she met Toriello.
Members of Mincey’s meetup group attended Bitcoin 2024 this previous July (Mincey couldn’t make the occasion). The group members met Toriello and Easy Proof’s sales space on the convention. Toriello and the Easy Proof crew had been there elevating consciousness about how public information will be protected in an immutable method utilizing Bitcoin.
“Our name to motion was Uncle Honey Badger desires you to guard the elections with Bitcoin,” mentioned Toriello with fun.
(The Honey Badger, identified for its toughness and resilience, is usually thought of Bitcoin’s mascot.)
One of many group members spoke with Toriello on the occasion and stayed in contact with him afterwards. In September, Mincey’s meetup group invited Toriello to talk nearly at one among their conferences.
“He spoke on the assembly, and afterwards I began speaking to him as a result of I used to be very intrigued about how we might be sure that our outcomes had been verified,” mentioned Mincey. “I used to be simply blown away at how they used Easy Proof in Guatemala.”
In late October, Mincey proposed utilizing Easy Proof at a board assembly, and the board voted in favor of it. Mincey contacted Toriello, and the remaining is now historical past.
Additional Implementation Of Easy Proof
Toriello is optimistic after Easy Proof and Screven County’s profitable endeavor and would now wish to see Georgia implement Easy Proof’s companies statewide for its subsequent elections.
“We proved that we are able to implement this inside per week or so in a county,” mentioned Toriello. “Why not do that in each county within the state of Georgia from right here on out?”
Mincey, too, want to see each county in Georgia use Easy Proof. She truly wished this to be the case on this previous election, however time wasn’t on her facet.
“I hoped that I might have launched it to our state-level individuals in order that it had extra widespread use,” she mentioned. “However, this time, there was no time to essentially get it out statewide.”
Toriello additionally has his sights set past Georgia.
“We have already made inroads in a bunch of various locations round the entire nation,” mentioned Toriello, who believes that extra counties and states will see the worth in what Easy Proof provides after this success story in Screven County.
“I would like this to unfold like wildfire as authorities see that is easy to implement they usually can afford it,” he added.
“We’re very optimistic.”
