Cryptographically secure vote-casting that also enables individual voters to privately verify that their scanned paper ballot has been added to the blockchain, while making it impossible for bad actors to verify how voters voted.
PaperBallotchain
A Paper-Ballot-to-Blockchain Voting System
Solves the critical technical vulnerabilities identified by MIT & Blockchain experts
that have justifiably caused them to strenuously warn against blockchain voting
Pairs paper ballots and blockchain technology
with only open-source code
Patent #: 12132827
Here's what PaperBallotchain can provide to you:


Fully transparent, perfectly accurate, near instantaneous vote-counting of all cryptographically verified ballots on the blockchain.
Compare Voting Methods

Compare Blockchain Voting Methods
Problems (Critical Technical Vulnerabilities)
in Traditional
Electronic-Ballot-to-Blockchain Voting
Solutions (Low-Tech & Non-Tech)
in New
Paper-Ballot-to-Blockchain Voting
This method is vulnerable to undetectable and large-scale hacks and would require a whole new election if the ballot data or blockchain were hacked because no paper ballots would exist for a hand-count or other type of counting method.
This method is not vulnerable to undetectable or large-scale hacks and would not require a whole new election if the ballot-image data or blockchains were hacked because paper ballots would exist in official custody for a hand-count or other type of counting method.
1. Jeopardizes ballot integrity: “If vote-casting is entirely software-based, a malicious system could fool the voter about how the vote was actually recorded”—and that system would be prone to large-scale error and hacks that could overturn the election results in undetectable ways, or if detected, would require a whole new election. (Sources: 1) MIT experts: no, don’t use blockchain to vote | MIT CSAIL. 2) Would Voting Be Better On A Blockchain - YouTube.)
2. Jeopardizes voter anonymity: The software required to simultaneously 1) verify voter identity, 2) ensure voter anonymity (remove voter identity when casting the ballot), and 3) remember voter identity to prevent voters from casting multiple ballots—has not yet been developed/solved, and even if it were developed/solved—it would be prone to large-scale error and hacks that could compromise voter anonymity on a large scale and could enable casting of fraudulent ballots on a large scale that could overturn election results in undetectable ways, or if detected, would require a whole new election. (Source: Would Voting Be Better On A Blockchain - YouTube.)
If using coins to vote: “it does not provide a secret ballot: all votes are public, and users can prove to a third party how they voted, enabling coercion and vote-selling.”
If using zero- knowledge proofs:
“While this would mean that transaction data would no longer be publicly visible, the resulting scheme would still be far from providing ballot secrecy.”
If the software were hacked, voter anonymity would be compromised on a large scale.
They are “designed for a setting where the party with secret information wants to keep it secret…—they generally do not prevent that party from revealing information voluntarily.”
(Source: Going from bad to worse: from Internet voting to blockchain voting | Journal of Cybersecurity | Oxford Academic.)
3. New Blockchain Database Vulnerability: New blockchain databases typically have a small number of computer node participants, which makes them inherently vulnerable to 51% attacks, in which a bad actor gains control of 51% of the blockchain nodes/computers, enabling them to manipulate the blockchain in certain ways and “create multiple versions of the blockchain to show different people, sowing discord.” Even though the hack would be detectible, it would require a whole new election. (Source: Would Voting Be Better On A Blockchain - YouTube.) (Source: Going from bad to worse: from Internet voting to blockchain voting | Journal of Cybersecurity | Oxford Academic.)
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Donec ac urna a ipsum fermentum hendrerit. Pellentesque habitant morbi tristique senectus et netus et malesuada fames ac turpis egestas. Quisque turpis augue, imperdiet sit amet fermentum vitae, ultricies id leo. Curabitur ut feugiat nisi.
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Donec ac urna a ipsum fermentum hendrerit. Pellentesque habitant morbi tristique senectus et netus et malesuada fames ac turpis egestas. Quisque turpis augue, imperdiet sit amet fermentum vitae, ultricies id leo. Curabitur ut feugiat nisi.
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Vestibulum quis dapibus nisl. Pellentesque faucibus velit at iaculis sodales. Curabitur commodo justo vel turpis tincidunt rutrum.
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Donec ac urna a ipsum fermentum hendrerit. Pellentesque habitant morbi tristique senectus et netus et malesuada fames ac turpis egestas. Quisque turpis augue, imperdiet sit amet fermentum vitae, ultricies id leo. Curabitur ut feugiat nisi.
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Vestibulum quis dapibus nisl. Pellentesque faucibus velit at iaculis sodales. Curabitur commodo justo vel turpis tincidunt rutrum.
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Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Vestibulum quis dapibus nisl. Pellentesque faucibus velit at iaculis sodales. Curabitur commodo justo vel turpis tincidunt rutrum.
Donec ac urna a ipsum fermentum hendrerit. Pellentesque habitant morbi tristique senectus et netus et malesuada fames ac turpis egestas. Quisque turpis augue, imperdiet sit amet fermentum vitae, ultricies id leo. Curabitur ut feugiat nisi.
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Vestibulum quis dapibus nisl. Pellentesque faucibus velit at iaculis sodales. Curabitur commodo justo vel turpis tincidunt rutrum.
Donec ac urna a ipsum fermentum hendrerit. Pellentesque habitant morbi tristique senectus et netus et malesuada fames ac turpis egestas. Quisque turpis augue, imperdiet sit amet fermentum vitae, ultricies id leo. Curabitur ut feugiat nisi.
This method is vulnerable to undetectable and large-scale hacks and would require a whole new election if the ballot data or blockchain were hacked because no paper ballots would exist for a hand-count or other type of counting method.
This method is not vulnerable to undetectable or large-scale hacks and would not require a whole new election if the ballot-image data or blockchains were hacked because paper ballots would exist in official custody for a hand-count or other type of counting method.
Key Steps
in PaperBallotchain
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Key Security Layers
in PaperBallotchain
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Donec ac urna a ipsum fermentum hendrerit. Pellentesque habitant morbi tristique senectus et netus et malesuada fames ac turpis egestas. Quisque turpis augue, imperdiet sit amet fermentum vitae, ultricies id leo. Curabitur ut feugiat nisi.
Key Reports
in PaperBallotchain
Key Hand-Written Reports
for anomalies
Key Live Reports
produced by Blockchain Explorer
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Anonymity
Compare Voting Methods
Problems with Current Voting Methods
Current voting methods suffer from vulnerabilities and cumbersome tasks that result in disputes, costly and time-consuming audits, court cases, and destabilizing delays in voting results.
In some voting methods, the vote-casting method is vulnerable in key required or desired capabilities:
- Protect voter anonymity—ensuring a voter is not linked a particular ballot—preventing a voter from being able to prove of how they voted—which hinders bad-actor efforts to buy or coerce votes. [Required Capability]
- Guard against an individual or malware casting multiple ballots on a large scale (that can overturn election results, which are often won by less than 2 percentage points). [Required Capability]
- Guard against large-scale ballot tampering (by individuals or malware) before/when the ballot is cast into the ballot repository—enable voters to verify their ballots are marked and cast according to their intentions (provides ballot-marking transparency). [Required Capability]
- Guard against large-scale ballot tampering (by individuals or malware) after the ballot is cast into the ballot repository—provide an immutable, tamper-evident, transparent, auditable record/trail of ballots. [Required Capability]
- Enable fast and easy vote casting—to maximize voter participation. [Desired Capability]
- Provide i relatively nexpensive vote casting—compared to other options. [Desired Capability]
In some voting methods, the vote-counting method is vulnerable in key required or desired capabilities:
- Provide accurate vote counting—that prevents large-scale inaccuracies that could overturn the results of an election. [Required Capability]
- Provide transparent vote-counting—that enables all stakeholders to observe and detect errors in the vote-counting process and vote tally. [Required Capability]
- Enable a voter to verify whether their personal ballot is included in the count, without compromising voter anonymity. [Desired Capability]
- Enable fast and easy vote counting. [Desired Capability]
- Provide relatively inexpensive vote counting—compared to other options. [Desired Capability]
Confusingly, on the surface, blockchain voting appears to be the optimal solution to voting-system problems because
it can enable convenient casting of electronic ballots from mobile devices
to a public, cryptographically secured, transparent, immutable, tamper-evident, decentralized, digital ledger (of ballots),
where the ballots can be automatically counted perfectly and nearly instantly.
However, MIT and other blockchain experts have strenuously warned against blockchain voting, explaining
although data is highly secure and tamper-evident once on a blockchain
blockchain voting has three critical technical vulnerabilities (problems)
and paper ballots are vital to a secure voting system.
- “MIT experts: no, don’t use blockchain to vote” MIT CSAIL: https://www.csail.mit.edu/news/mit-experts-no-dont-use-blockchain-vote
- “Would Voting Be Better On A Blockchain?” Andreas Antonopoulos: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gOR-L_3zns0&feature=youtu.be
- Going from bad to worse: from Internet voting to blockchain voting” Journal of Cybersecurity: https://academic.oup.com/cybersecurity/article/7/1/tyaa025/6137886
Thus, if only we could transfer paper ballot data onto a blockchain securely, then the ballot data could be safely stored and counted on the blockchain, but how can we do that? A paper ballot would need to be scanned, and that scanned data would be subject to the same vulnerabilities as the electronic ballot on its path from the scanner to the blockchain.
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Donec ac urna a ipsum fermentum hendrerit. Pellentesque habitant morbi tristique senectus et netus et malesuada fames ac turpis egestas. Quisque turpis augue, imperdiet sit amet fermentum vitae, ultricies id leo. Curabitur ut feugiat nisi.
Solution: Paper-Ballot-to-Blockchian-Voting Method
A cryptographically secured paper-ballot-to-blockchain voting system—that solves key ballot casting, counting, and storage problems and the critical technical problems/vulnerabilities of current blockchain voting described by MIT and blockchain experts.
This paper-ballot-to-blockchain voting system solves those problems—using paper ballots and low-tech and non-tech solutions in combination with blockchain technology and only open-source code.
This paper-ballot-to-blockchain voting system protects against voting system vulnerabilities significantly better than current voting systems—per a systematic evaluation of vote-casting and vote-counting methods using a rating system.
Ratings of this system’s vote-casting method according to the required and desired capabilities of vote-casting:
1. STRENGTH: Protect voter anonymity. [Required]
2. MAJOR STRENGTH: Guard against an individual or malware casting multiple ballots on a large scale. [Required]
3. MAJOR STRENGTH: Guard against large-scale ballot tampering (by individuals or malware) before/when the ballot is cast into the ballot repository—enables voters to verify their ballots are marked and cast according to their intentions (provides ballot-marking transparency). [Required]
4. MAJOR STRENGTH: Guard against large-scale ballot tampering (by individuals or malware) after the ballot is cast into the ballot repository—provide an immutable, tamper-evident, transparent, auditable record/trail of ballots. [Required}
- Saves tamper-evident ballot data onto a cryptographically secure, transparent, immutable, tamper-evident, distributed, digital ledger (a blockchain).
- Saves the original paper ballots.
5. WEAKNESS: Enable fast and easy vote casting. [Desired]
- Same speed as other paper ballot casting methods—since paper ballots are still employed.
- A tradeoff for ballot security—because speed is merely a desired capability while ballot security is a required capability.
- If electronic ballots were used, they “would come at the cost of losing meaningful assurance that votes have been counted as they were cast, and not undetectably altered or discarded.”
- Studies show “online voting may have little to no effect on turnout in practice, and it may even increase disenfranchisement.”
- Source: Going from bad to worse: from Internet voting to blockchain voting | Journal of Cybersecurity
6. TO BE DETERMINED: Provide relatively inexpensive vote casting—compared to other options. [Desired]
Ratings of this system’s vote-counting method according to the required and desired capabilities of vote-counting:
1. MAJOR STRENGTH: Provide accurate vote counting. [Required]
2. MAJOR STRENGTH: Provide transparent vote-counting. [Required]
3. STRENGTH: Enable a voter to verify whether their personal ballot is included in the count, without compromising voter anonymity. [Desired]
- Enables each voter to nearly instantly verify their paper ballot data has been cast onto a blockchain and is currently included in the vote count.
- Therefore, voters are not required to understand or trust blockchain technology.
4. STRENGTH: Enable fast and easy vote counting. [Desired]
5. TO BE DETERMINED: Provide relatively inexpensive vote counting—compared to other options. [Desired]
Those capabilities are possible because the system provides solutions to the three critical technical vulnerabilities of blockchain voting, which are discussed next.