Anonymous voting using distributed ledger-assisted secure multi-party computation

  • High voter turnout in elections and referendums is desirable to ensure a robust democracy. Secure electronic voting is a vision for the future of elections and referendums. Such a system can counteract factors hindering strong voter turnout such as the requirement of physical presence during limited hours at polling stations. However, this vision brings transparency and confidentiality requirements that render the design of such solutions challenging. Specifically, the counting implementation must support reproducibility, and the choice of individual voters must remain confidential. In this paper, we propose and evaluate a novel referendum protocol that ensures transparency, confidentiality, and integrity, in trustless networks. The protocol is built by combining secure multi-party computation and distributed ledger technology, e.g., a Blockchain. The persistence and immutability of the protocol communication allow verifiability of the referendum outcome by any participant. Voters therefore do not need to trust third parties. WeHigh voter turnout in elections and referendums is desirable to ensure a robust democracy. Secure electronic voting is a vision for the future of elections and referendums. Such a system can counteract factors hindering strong voter turnout such as the requirement of physical presence during limited hours at polling stations. However, this vision brings transparency and confidentiality requirements that render the design of such solutions challenging. Specifically, the counting implementation must support reproducibility, and the choice of individual voters must remain confidential. In this paper, we propose and evaluate a novel referendum protocol that ensures transparency, confidentiality, and integrity, in trustless networks. The protocol is built by combining secure multi-party computation and distributed ledger technology, e.g., a Blockchain. The persistence and immutability of the protocol communication allow verifiability of the referendum outcome by any participant. Voters therefore do not need to trust third parties. We provide a formal description and conduct a thorough security evaluation of our proposal.show moreshow less

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Metadaten
Author:Harald Kosch, Lionel Brunie, Tobias Mayer, Omar Hasan, Maximilian Schiedermeier
URN:urn:nbn:de:bvb:739-opus4-15176
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1007/s41109-024-00650-2
Parent Title (English):Applied Network Science
Publisher:Springer International Publishing
Place of publication:Cham (Schweiz)
Document Type:Article
Language:English
Year of Completion:2024
Date of Publication (online):2024/08/28
Date of first Publication:2024/08/28
Publishing Institution:Universität Passau
Release Date:2024/12/12
Tag:Distributed ledger; E-voting; Transparency; Trustless networks
Volume:2024
Issue:9
Article Number:51
Page Number:25 Seiten
Institutes:Fakultät für Informatik und Mathematik
Dewey Decimal Classification:0 Informatik, Informationswissenschaft, allgemeine Werke / 00 Informatik, Wissen, Systeme / 004 Datenverarbeitung; Informatik
open_access (DINI-Set):open_access
Funding Acknowledgement:Gefördert durch den Open-Access-Publikationsfonds der Universitätsbibliothek Passau.
Licence (German):License LogoCreative Commons - CC BY - Namensnennung 4.0 International