[Photo, fortune.com]
By mentioning blockchain, I am sure your mind has thought of Bitcoin and its value in the various cryptocurrency markets. Things have been bad since China banned those ICOs and I am sure you have sold a few coins or decided to ‘HODL’.
If you still have no clue as to what blockchain technology is or what I am talking about, allow me to give a brief introduction.
Blockchain according to Wikipedia, is a continuously growing list of [digital] records. These records are called blocks. The blocks are linked and secured using cryptography. By design, the blockchains cannot be modified and can be made public for verification.
What does this mean?
It means each digital transaction on the blockchain database, is recorded in a sort of open ledger. The transaction has been permanently recorded using cryptography and cannot be altered. The record is secure.
Think of it this way. You walk into a supermarket to buy milk. There is a CCTV at the counter that records the transaction and time you were there. This video is the ledger. It is then encrypted and stored. It can be played back to verify what you bought and the time and place.
Back to elections…Blockchain technology can make election voting far more secure and easy.
We’d simply walk into an electronic voting booth, verify our credentials using fingerprints, PIN or facial recognition…then choose our candidate using a touchscreen…THE END!
The vote is done, encrypted, recorded and can be ‘opened’ for scrutiny!
Staff at IEBC would be sitting in their offices with their legs on their desks waiting for the vote to conclude.
They would know it is all secure.
If asked to ‘open the servers’, they’d be able to do so and show proof of the digital transaction in the ledger that facilitated the vote.
Now, the hard part would be convincing the Kenyan masses that blockchain tech cannot be hacked by loose chicken!
Perhaps the best method of introducing such technology is by popularizing bitcoin as a form of currency.
But the CBK needs to relax on cryptocurrencies for this to come to fruition.
Kenya needs to borrow a leaf from Russia. They are introducing cryptocurrency and blockchain technology to even children of 6 years.