Russian Elections Chief To Pitch National Blockchain Voting To Putin

Ella Pamfilova, the head of the Central Election Commission of Russia, reportedly said that she plans to approach President Vladimir Putin about the possibility of conducting Russia’s next presidential election on a blockchain. She hopes that the new voting system will be adopted in time for the country’s 2024 election.

In a March 27 radio appearance, Pamfilova related that she would “discuss this issue with the president,” adding that the Russian public desires such a platform. “We have refurbished everything we could before the latest election, but now as the election is over we have to act preemptively. I want to make a system that has no analogue, a system based on blockchain.”

Russia’s most recent presidential election was held on March 18, with the incumbent Putin taking nearly 77 percent of the vote.

According to the elections official, the blockchain voting platform would be hack-resistant, convenient to use, and “guaranteed against rigging from any side whatsoever.”

Earlier this month, it was announced that exit poll data from the presidential contest was to be recorded onto a blockchain by the state-run All-Russian Public Opinion Research Center, better known by its acronym VTSIOM.

If Pamfilova’s platform is successfully developed, it is projected that it will also play a central role in a program called “Digital VTSIOM.”

In late 2017, the government of Moscow revealed plans to migrate its Active Citizen voting system, which allows Muscovites to “influence city management decisions and its urban transformation,” onto an Ethereum-based platform.  

Adam Reese is a Los Angeles-based writer interested in technology, domestic and international politics, social issues, infrastructure and the arts. Adam is a full-time staff writer for ETHNews and holds value in Ether, Bitcoin, and Monero.

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