The news service will sign the data cryptographically and publish its key. Everipedia will employ Chainlink technology to build an infrastructure of oracles.
The American news agency The Associated Press (AP) will incorporate distributed ledger technology or blockchain to its traditional vote count in the presidential election between Donald Trump and Joe Biden. The information cooperative established an alliance with Everipedia to use an Oracle infrastructure.
According to a press release released this Thursday, the AP will deploy specialized teams in all USA 50 states to gather information from voters. The data, once corroborated by the agency, will be incorporated into the blockchain using the Everipedia OraQle service, a solution provided by Chainlink, the decentralized network of oracles. On how the system will work, Everipedia reported the following:
“Everipedia’s Chainlink node will provide smart contracts with access to election data (which will be) backed by cryptographic proof. This can be used to verify that our node data comes directly from the original Associated Press API, to which Everipedia has exclusive and authenticated access”, the company explained.
AP will sign the data cryptographically and then publish its key through official Everipedia channels, it was added. The company pointed out that the integration will allow it to spread the election data simultaneously on multiple blockchains.
It is important to note that the AP will not only collect and disseminate certified information on the presidential election, but will also do so for the rest of the upcoming elections on Tuesday, November 3. That includes voting for 7,000 publicly elected offices such as senators and the House of Representatives. Certain states will also hold legislative elections.
Vote counting can now happen thanks to blockchain
Concerning the data collection process in this type of election, AP highlighted that before relying on “vulnerable technology”, it relies on the work of its local reporters who “have first-hand knowledge of their territories and relationships of trust with the county clerks.”
The agency has been counting presidential elections since 1848, and for the first time, the information will get validated on a blockchain. AP will leverage Chainlink’s technology and publish on Everipedia, an online encyclopedia that rewards its contributors with the IQ token.
As for the blockchain oracles, these are services solely created to use information that remains external to the blockchain provided by third parties that feed the network. They function as a bridge between blockchains and the outside world. In the absence of oracles, blockchains and smart contracts would be limited to working only with information on-chain or within the chain.
It is worth mentioning that oracles do not guarantee the veracity of the information that is recorded in the chain, which means that it is not a completely secure method.
The Associated Press captured media attention in the bitcoiner ecosystem in May last year after it included the names of various cryptocurrencies in its style manual.
The agency made the use of Bitcoin official with a capital letter to refer to the concept (digital system) that represents the cryptocurrency and bitcoin with a lowercase when talking about the native cryptocurrency of the network. Additionally, he validated the job in his Litecoin, Dogecoin, and Ethereum news.
By: Jenson Nuñez.
