Among all the candidates aspiring to be elected the President of the United States of America in the year 2020, Andrew Yang has demonstrated that he is among the most pro-crypto and blockchain. In the same vein, the candidate for the Democratic Party recently used his website to provide an idea to make the process fully fraud-proof.
Yang stated that if he is victorious, he will implement the blockchain technology to optimize the whole voting process. On that same line of though, he wrote that it is “ridiculous that in 2020 we are still standing in line for hours,” implying that he is shooting for more speed and transparency.
Having the Option to Vote on Mobile Devices
Yang stated that he thinks that Americans need to have the option to vote on their mobile devices, and the blockchain model would be used for verification. It makes sense that, if people use their smartphones to perform a significant percentage of everyday activities, they also use them to vote faster.
Yang also indicated another sensible subject when it comes to voting process these days: the majority of voting machines are prone to suffer hacking attacks, as are most of the Internet-connected devices we use every day. Blockchain technology can also help out on that front.
Getting Rid of “Antiquated” Voting Booths
The politician stated that the voting booths are “antiquated,” and that it is “100% technically possible to have fraud-proof voting on our mobile phones today using the blockchain. This would revolutionize true democracy and increase participation to include all Americans.”
If the candidate is truly talking about inclusion in addition to speed, security, and efficiency, he also needs to include those without smartphones, because despite them being widespread in every location, not everybody has to own one.
On that subject, Yang stated that people that do not have smartphones “could use the legacy system and lines would be very short.” The member of the Democratic Party has long been a crypto supporter, even receiving donations in Bitcoin for its campaign, and now he is attempting to gain the trust of fans of the blockchain technology, which is an ever-growing community.
In July, it was reported that a new political action committee that supports Yang would be accepting crypto donations via the Lightning Network, in the form of Bitcoin. He has said in the past that the blockchain space is huge and still has untapped potential. He has also called for clear guidelines for all actors in the crypto industry, including investors, firms, and individuals.
Increasing Participation
The candidate also stated that he wants mobile voting to help increment the participation in future election processes. He again used his website to say that a normal presidential election has roughly 50% participation from the eligible public, and the low number can reward “extreme points of view as opposed to the popular will.”
If Yang’s dreams come to fruition, it would not be the first time that the blockchain technology has been used to improve elections and voting processes around the world. United Russia, which is the ruling party of the Russian Federation, recently developed a blockchain-based platform for primary elections. The system let people vote online and, to prevent fraud, a blockchain was used to count the votes.
By Andres Chavez
