Voting Block USA project for the 2024 US Presidential election
Project Introduction
The mission of Voting Block USA (VB USA) is to offer US citizens an ‘unofficial’ blockchain-based voting system for the 2024 US Presidential election. This non-profit educational exercise will show the American people the possibilities of Web3 technologies and challenge the 20204 candidates to take a position on how Web3 innovation can create a more private, secure, efficient, and significantly less costly government.
“I don’t think everybody in D.C. actually fully realizes how powerful the crypto voting community block is. 56 million people in the U.S. have already used cryptocurrencies. That’s 5x as many people that have an electric vehicle. I think 2024 is an election where the voters of America are really going to hold candidates’ feet to the fire and say, What is your position on crypto?”
—Brian Armstrong, Founder & CEO, Coinbase
Blockchain voting can bring back trust in the US voting system by ensuring that elections are transparent, secure, verifiable, convenient, and accessible to all citizens. We also believe that 24/7 accessibility to make or change your vote, incorporating mobile-friendly interfaces will lead to much higher voter turnouts and significantly reduce costs. With these savings, we can invest more money in voter education and assistance so that every willing citizen can participate.
The VB USA initiative also provides the opportunity to educate US citizens on how the ‘Bitcoin metaphor’ of decentralization can be applied to all government agencies to significantly cut overhead and keep our most private data out of 3rd party hands. Our governments are still operating in the 20th century and are ripe to be reinvented by blockchain and related cryptographic discoveries, AI, and distributed storage. These innovations are the roots of a new economy and world system that the US must be the first to fully embrace or continue to run up deficits and lose our competitive advantages.
VB USA will be funded via private donations and selling limited-edition commemorative NFTs at different donation levels. VB USA will be organized for educational purposes and tax-exempt under Internal Revenue Code Section 501(c)(3). Given the project's non-profit educational and experimental nature, VB USA will not be subject to any election or campaign finance regulations.
The sooner we get on top of this initiative, the faster we can fulfill the intentions of the US Constitution and save our democracy.
The problem: Lack of trust in the US voting system
A recent Gallup poll that measured confidence in our elections shows a whopping 60 percent of the red team does not have confidence in the US voting system, with the purple team (independents) logging in a 33 percent mistrust rate and the blue team at 15 percent. Net-net, of those polled, 37 percent mistrust our voting system. If 37 percent of your customers do not trust your company in Silicon Valley, you don’t have a business.
A new Rasmussen survey found that 55 percent of likely US voters believe cheating likely affected the outcome of the 2020 presidential election, including 39 percent who think it's Very Likely.
The solution:
The goal is to create a public blockchain-based voting system pilot with advanced cryptographic techniques to guarantee an online environment that is accessible 24/7 from anywhere in the world, that is tamper-free, immutable, private, and simple to use.
Focus on the 2024 presidential elections to keep the pilot simple. VB USA will be designed so that any US citizen over 18, willing to validate their citizenship, can register and vote for any presidential candidate registered in the app. According to existing laws, only natural-born US citizens who have been US residents for at least 14 years and are 35 or older can register to run for President.
3rd Party Voter ID system: Just as with getting a passport, to register for VB USA, a voter will need to have a Birth Certificate and valid ID (passport, driver's license, non-driver photo ID, military ID, or Tribal card). The big difference (now listen up, all you conspiracy theorists!) is that a 3rd party vendor will complete your voter ID validation. The only thing the VB USA system will know about you is that you have been validated as a US citizen, are over 18 years old, and which state you declare as your residence. Blockchain's cryptographic techniques make voter fraud, such as voting multiple times or impersonating others, orders of magnitude more complex than existing systems.
USA NFT and your VB USA wallet: Once validated and registered, you will receive a super sweet USA NFT in your VB USA digital wallet. This NFT will become your private crypto key to log in, manage your vote, and view and track your voting history. Because the system is public blockchain-based, no central administrator can view or tamper with your private data.
Decentralized computing network: As a public blockchain-based application, VB USA's computational power and data storage is spread across a network of nodes (computers) on the Internet rather than managed and stored at data centers controlled and run by government employees with full access to private data. Decentralized computing eliminates risks of data loss, allows greater scalability, and is much more secure with no single point of failure. No one can hack your voting data if it's broken up, encrypted, and stored across thousands of nodes.
Blockchain's cryptographic features provide a high level of security. It would be far more difficult, if not impossible, to hack, cyber attack, or manipulate a well-executed blockchain voting app than any existing voting system.
The VB USA smart contract will allow voters to change their votes until the Midnight Hour when the polls close in their respective time zones. Voters can also enjoy real-time, validated results, including electoral college vote totals, all along the way until the last time zone’s vote is in.
Anybody can run for President for no money down. Due to the physical limitations of paper ballots, candidates must undergo a hugely complex and financially prohibitive qualifying process to make the ballot in every 50 states. A blockchain voting system eliminates the need for these archaic and unnecessary requirements and can save candidates millions in legal, consulting, and signature-gathering fees.
Candidate Profile Requirements: Once validated, qualified, and registered in the system, candidates must fill out a Curriculum Vitae with up to 12 outside links that can be updated along the way with news story links, etc. Second, candidates must answer a character-limited questionnaire that asks three questions: 1) Why are you running for President? 2), Why are you qualified to be President? and 3) What are your differentiating strengths and advantages that make you the best candidate for the job? Finally, candidates must fill out a list of their top 12 'Leadership Priorities' for their administration in the same character-limited fashion that can also include links to outside data and content.
Real-time election stats: One of the most excellent features is that registered voters of VB USA will be able to view real-time national votes and electoral college totals 24/7 up to the closing of all the polls. VB USA will have a sortable and filter-friendly index of all candidates, including profile, leadership priorities page views, click-throughs to outside candidate information, votes cast by party, and regular polling data. Fundraising stats can be added to future adopted versions of the system.
Crowd contribution raising platform with AI-automated campaign finance & legal compliance: This will NOT be part of the pilot, but this is a no-brainer. All individual campaign contributions could be made via the same blockchain-based voter validation and registration application. Each contribution would be immutably recorded, fully transparent, and automatically checked versus dollar limits, and all reports would meet all disclosure laws and other requirements at a minimal cost. This setup would allow for anonymous contributions because donors would be validated. Blockchain’s transparent and traceable nature could simplify post-election audits and verifications.
Basic requirements to meet ‘trusted network’ standard
Public/private key-based wallet and authentication system that allows voters to sign in to VB USA without sharing sign-in credentials.
3rd party, biometric-based identification system
Potential technology partners
It is important that VB USA’s partners are US-based
Coinbase: As a global leader in digital asset management and Brian Armstrong’s vocal support of blockchain-based voting, Coinbase is a natural partner, and we should explore both their Base blockchain.
What is Base?
Base is an Ethereum Layer 2 (L2) chain that offers a safe, low-cost, developer-friendly way to build on-chain. Base is an L2 built on OP Stack in collaboration with Optimism. We’re incubating Base inside of Coinbase, leveraging the last decade of our experience building crypto products, and plan to decentralize the chain progressively over time. We currently do not plan to issue a new network token. Some of the highlights of Base are:
Secured by Ethereum: Base is built with the security and scalability you need to power your decentralized apps. It leverages the underlying security of Ethereum, along with Coinbase’s best practices, to enable you to confidently onramp into Base from Coinbase, Ethereum L1, and other interoperable chains.
Empowered by Coinbase: Base makes it easy to build decentralized apps with access to Coinbase’s products, users, and tools. Seamless Coinbase product integrations, easy fiat onramps, and powerful acquisition tools enable developers to serve the 110m verified users and $80B+ assets in the Coinbase ecosystem.
Big features, small fees: Base offers full EVM compatibility at a fraction of the cost and is committed to pushing forward the developer platform. Set up gasless transactions for your dapps with easy developer APIs for account abstraction and securely build multichain applications with easy-to-use bridges.
Open source: Base aims to be decentralized, permissionless, and open to anyone with the vision of creating a standard, modular, rollup agnostic Superchain powered by Optimism. We’re joining Optimism as a Core Dev on the open source OP Stack and working to create a thriving community of other developers.
Coinbase Prime launches Web3 Wallet
Coinbase just announced a set of developer tools that allow companies to embed custom digital wallets directly in their applications. Leveraging MPC technology for a non-custodial wallet, clients can now:
Store any token from supported networks, including assets not yet available on Prime Custody
Gain instant access to funds
Interact directly with dapps and smart contracts
Tap into decentralized liquidity to trade a large range of assets
Vote on DAO governance
Lend assets or stake with direct access to DeFi
Buy, sell, mint, and manage NFT collections
Manage web3 social accounts
By offering the Coinbase wallet option, VB USA can give the voters who do not have an existing wallet they prefer, the ability to set up their digital wallet as easy as creating a username and password and avoid the technical and sign-up friction of most standalone digital wallets today.
However, the infrastructure should support other wallets with typical ERC protocols, e.g., Metamask, MyCrypto, MEW, Atomic, and Exodus, to make it easier for voters who want to work with their current wallet choice if they wish.
Voatz: Founded in 2014, Boston-based Voatz is an award-winning mobile elections platform that is changing how the world votes. Backed by cutting-edge security, biometrics, and a blockchain-backed infrastructure, Voatz enables smartphone voting to increase accessibility and security in elections. The company's platform leverages biometric scanning and blockchain to authenticate voters and store votes safely. Voatz rallied investors around a funding goal of $10 million last year to expand the adoption of mobile voting with blockchain and biometrics.
Since 2016, Voatz has successfully served more than 2.3 million voters across 125 elections with several governments and major political parties in 6 countries. In 2018, Voatz ran the first mobile vote in US Federal Election history, and in 2020, Voatz became the first smartphone app-based system to be used for voting in the US Presidential Elections. Fifteen cities in Canada recently selected Voatz for the 2022 Ontario Municipal Elections. Voatz also became the first election system in the world to complete a successful BMM (Blockchain Maturity Model) assessment by the GBA.
Primary Contact: Nimit Sawhney, Co-Founder, CEO, Cybersecurity Engineer, @ Voatz, ns@voatz.com, +1 (617) 669-6366, 50 Milk Street, 16th Floor, Boston, MA 02109
Voatz Investors in $10M round in 2021: 10X Capital, Eldridge, Gaingel, Hard Yaka, Pelion Venture Partners, Tavistock Road, Water
User identification, authentication, assignment of the BASE address, and congressional districts.
User identification, authentication, assignment of the BASE address, and congressional districts.
The system assumes two DID (Decentralized ID) NFT tokens* and one verified BASE blockchain address for each voter. One DID token for local/state elections (LODID) and another for federal (FEDID).
We can’t have DID in one token because LODID is based on the data derived from the DL, national, or other IDs that contain current voter address, age, gender, expiration date, etc. + biometrics. FEDID is based on proof of citizenship and can be a passport, naturalization, or birth certificate. Unlike LODID, FEDID will not have an expiration date, even if the original document expires. We assume the number of people who will renounce US citizenship but still decide to vote in general elections is virtually none.
LODID will help assign voters to their voting districts and can be used for onboarding with any 3rd party vendor that requires KYC.
Once LODID and FEDID are minted and sent to the user’s address, the system will whitelist the receiving address in a voter blockchain registry. All consequent voting is only allowed from whitelisted addresses.
Now, we will have the lists of all “registered” voter BASE addresses pinned to each of the 435 congressional districts. Once the vote is cast, we know where it came from and which district to post it to.
Personalization of each candidate receiving addresses.
All candidates listed on the ballot(s) will be assigned a named address with .ens or .eth extensions. E.g., BIDEN2024.ENS; TRUMP2024.ENS; TNcongressSmith2024.eth, etc. Name addresses are necessary to distinguish receiving-only addresses from transactional ones and for public transparency.
Airdrop of voting tokens to all registered voters.
At a specific time before Election Day, the voter may request the voting tokens, or the Airdrop is commenced to all whitelisted addresses. Each voter with both DID tokens in the wallet will receive 1 (one) token for the Presidential Election (e.g., PRES2024) and X tokens for the local/state elections, e.g., LOC2024. Voters without FEDID but with LODID will only receive LOC2024 tokens and won’t be eligible to participate in the General Election.
Election Day voting process.
On the day(s) when voting opens, or earlier, the voter goes to the Election dApp and connects to it with his/her previously whitelisted wallet/address. Non-whitelisted addresses or addresses with missing LODID/FEDID will not be allowed to connect or cast the vote. On the DApp, the voter is presented with the digital ballot(s) where s/he selects the candidate(s). Upon finalization and double confirmation of the preferred choices, the voter signs the digital ballot with the transaction using the connected wallet. Upon confirming the transaction, VB USA’s smart contract grabs the required number of tokens from the voter’s address and sends them to the designated candidate wallets. The system will then analyze and produce a live report on the number of tokens received in each named address, and from what districts/country/state the tokens came. The public will be able to monitor all named addresses in real-time.
Electoral colleges can use the public blockchain data to cast their votes traditionally.
ZkP DID technology (draft)
FT-based ID for user identification, decentralized voting, and privacy protection. We have three parties: the customer, the KYC vendor, and the Onboarder, which needs the KYC data to onboard the customer per specific regulations.
The customer information from scanned ID + Biometrics is run through the KYC provider (Jumio, Onfido, Sumsub, etc.), the usual KYC process. The customer data set is received.
The customer data set gets encrypted in the metadata of the NFT token and sent to the customer’s wallet address.
The customer uses Wallet Connect, a standard Web3 feature, with his NFT DID, to sign up with the onboarding company, which may set up a filter to accept specific customers. E.g., “US only, from 18 y.o. except New York state”. Those parameters are run and filtered over NFT’s metadata stored in the user wallet, producing Yes/No results.
Summary.
a) The NFT DID mint is done only once, for as long as the ID is valid. The DID NFT issuing/minting process is repeated upon the expiration date.
b) The KYC provider will never know what companies (onboarders) the user will sign up with and when.
c) Onboarders will never know the customer data. The onboarder only knows the user met their specific approval filters and parameters, making them compliant with the regulator.
References / additional readings:
ERC-5851: On-Chain Verifiable Credentials
https://eips.ethereum.org/EIPS/eip-5851
ERC-4955: Vendor Metadata Extension for NFTs
https://eips.ethereum.org/EIPS/eip-4955
ERC-5643: Subscription NFTs
https://eips.ethereum.org/EIPS/eip-5643
ERC-6551: Non-fungible Token Bound Accounts
https://eips.ethereum.org/EIPS/eip-6551
The blockchain voting application stack
Building a blockchain-based elections voting application involves a comprehensive software stack that integrates various components to ensure security, transparency, accessibility, and scalability. While the specific technology choices may vary, here's a general summary of the software stack considerations:
Blockchain Platform:
Blockchain Protocol: Base is an Ethereum Layer 2 (L2) chain that offers a safe, low-cost, developer-friendly way to build on-chain.
Smart Contracts and Logic:
Smart Contract Development: Create smart contracts to handle voter registration, ballot creation, vote casting, tallying, and auditing.
Smart Contract Language: Use a programming language supported by the chosen blockchain platform to develop secure and efficient smart contracts.
User Interfaces and Applications:
Web or Mobile App: Develop user-friendly interfaces for voters to register, cast votes, and monitor election results. This could involve web applications or mobile apps.
User Authentication: Implement secure authentication mechanisms to verify voter identities and prevent unauthorized access.
Security and Privacy:
Encryption: Implement encryption techniques to ensure the confidentiality of voter information and ballot data.
Identity Management: Use digital signatures and cryptographic methods to verify voter identities and prevent fraudulent voting.
Access Control: Set up role-based access control to manage permissions for different users, such as voters, administrators, and auditors.
Decentralization and Consensus:
Consensus Mechanism: Configure the chosen consensus mechanism (e.g., Proof of Work, Proof of Stake, Practical Byzantine Fault Tolerance) to ensure agreement on the validity of transactions and prevent double-spending.
Node Setup: Deploy and manage network nodes to maintain the decentralized nature of the blockchain.
Data Storage and Management:
IPFS or Distributed Storage: Utilize IPFS (InterPlanetary File System) or other distributed storage solutions to store large files like election results, ensuring accessibility and fault tolerance.
Auditing and Transparency:
Public Ledger: Leverage the transparency of the blockchain to create an auditable and tamper-resistant record of all transactions and votes.
Transaction Explorer: Develop a tool to explore and verify transactions and voting history on the blockchain.
Integration and Oracles:
External Data Sources: Use oracles or data feeds to securely integrate external data, such as voter lists or election regulations, into the blockchain application.
Testing and Quality Assurance:
Automated Testing: Implement automated testing frameworks to ensure the reliability and security of the application code.
Code Reviews: Conduct thorough code reviews and security audits to identify and mitigate vulnerabilities.
Scalability and Performance:
Load Balancing: Design the architecture to handle high volumes of concurrent users and votes, possibly utilizing load balancing and scaling techniques.
Optimization: Optimize smart contracts and database interactions to enhance performance.
Compliance and Legal Considerations:
Regulatory Compliance: Ensure the application adheres to relevant election laws, regulations, and data protection standards.
Maintenance and Upgrades:
Ongoing Support: Plan for continuous maintenance, updates, and improvements to address bugs, security vulnerabilities, and evolving requirements.
Analytics and Reporting:
Real-time Monitoring: Implement monitoring tools to track the health and performance of the blockchain network and applications.
Reporting: Develop reporting and analytics features to provide insights into voter participation and election outcomes.
Documentation and User Support:
User Guides: Create comprehensive documentation for voters, administrators, and other stakeholders to ensure ease of use and understanding.
User Support: Establish mechanisms for user support and assistance, such as FAQs, help desks, and communication channels.
Marketing and fundraising partners
Cryptonite is a Web3 brand that brings to life the entrepreneurs, companies, and investors pioneering AI, blockchain, crypto, sustainability, and regenerative science. Cryptonite will coordinate marketing and fundraising efforts for the project on the VB USA site as well as across Cryptonite media outlets. This effort includes publishing a weekly VB USA Substack-based newsletter to keep ‘registered voters’ up to date with the current vote totals and other trending stats and regular video podcast shows on Cryptonite Live! focused on the subject and working with other high-profile supporters to promote it to their constituencies.
Cryptonite Weekly Rap: Twice-a-week news and features e-letter covering the top innovation industry companies and trends and distributed to 1 million global Silicon Valley insiders.
Cryptonite: A Web3 network (in development) offering hand-curated daily news, original editorials, and video features, a Reddit-style community chat, subject-focused Tribes, and a robust professional and friendship social network.
Cryptonite Ventures: A team focused on making a market for the Cryptonite PRO coin by investing our social network platform and CRPOs in other professional social networks and CPROs in select Cryptonite 300 top private companies.
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