Skip to Content
Blockchain

Sierra Leone’s “blockchain vote” sounds neat, but don’t get carried away

March 13, 2018

Last week, the West African nation became the first to use blockchain technology as part of a presidential election. But contrary to some headlines, the vote wasn’t “blockchain-powered”— it was only blockchain-verified, and only sort of, at that.

The actual news:  Agora, a Swiss company with a proprietary blockchain-based voting system, was one of the “accredited observers” providing an independent vote count for comparison to the main tally, according to CoinDesk. And the system only tracked votes cast in the country’s most populous district. But it did generate good press for the company, which is also pitching the software to other countries in Africa and Europe.

Why it matters: Blockchain technology has real potential for elections, since it can be used to create tamper-proof audit trails. Sierra Leone’s test was at least a step in the right direction.

But: How the data is entered in the first place is crucial. In Sierra Leone, 280 designated individuals manually counted votes and wrote the data to a permissioned blockchain—which could in theory allow those humans to tamper with the numbers. Agora’s CEO told CoinDesk that future versions will further reduce openings for fraud.

Keep Reading

Most Popular

This new data poisoning tool lets artists fight back against generative AI

The tool, called Nightshade, messes up training data in ways that could cause serious damage to image-generating AI models. 

Rogue superintelligence and merging with machines: Inside the mind of OpenAI’s chief scientist

An exclusive conversation with Ilya Sutskever on his fears for the future of AI and why they’ve made him change the focus of his life’s work.

The Biggest Questions: What is death?

New neuroscience is challenging our understanding of the dying process—bringing opportunities for the living.

Driving companywide efficiencies with AI

Advanced AI and ML capabilities revolutionize how administrative and operations tasks are done.

Stay connected

Illustration by Rose Wong

Get the latest updates from
MIT Technology Review

Discover special offers, top stories, upcoming events, and more.

Thank you for submitting your email!

Explore more newsletters

It looks like something went wrong.

We’re having trouble saving your preferences. Try refreshing this page and updating them one more time. If you continue to get this message, reach out to us at customer-service@technologyreview.com with a list of newsletters you’d like to receive.