Abstract:
Over the last few decades, several electronic systems have been proposed and
implemented to as attempt to replace the traditional paper-based voting systems. Even
though the e-voting system are more efficient and convenient than the traditional voting
systems, it was identified that they should meet the specific security goals, such as
authentication, anonymity, availability, and integrity up to the same level that is
provided by manual systems.
If the voting system is centralized and controlled by one party, they may have the
opportunity to manipulate the votes thereby compromise the integrity. In this paper we
propose a Bitcoin based online transaction system to provide a solution to the identified
integrity related threats in an electronic voting system.
We have taken an existing, well-proven, robust, scalable e-cash system as the basis
for implementing the e-voting system. A comprehensive list of properties and features
expected of an e-cash system and e-voting system have been analysed in the paper to
show how different properties/features of an e-voting system map to an e-cash system.
We have shown how various functionalities of a bit coin-like system directly provide the
required features/properties of an e-voting system. Also, we have shown how various
functionalities of a bitcoin-like system can be modified and/or adapted to provide some
of the other required features/properties of an e-voting system.
Based on the outcomes of the methodology, we discuss how the complete e-voting
system is going to be built on blockchain technology. Further, we discuss how strongly
various security and performance requirements are being met in the research work
related to the proposed e-voting system.
