November 2018, has so far being a month to remember in the blockchain industry. With Bitcoin price dropping to its one year low and Bitcoin cash splitting into two, another notable event has taken place in the industry. Based on a recent report originating from Thailand, the country’s main opposition party, Thailand’s Democrat Party, has officially carried out a primary election using blockchain technology. This is the first time such will be done using blockchain technology. The voting exercise was powered by Zcoin blockchain.
Voting System Powered by Zcoin Blockchain
It was reported that the entire voting exercise was carried out using a live e-voting system powered by the Zcoin blockchain. The voting exercise was conducted between November 1 and November 9 and it involved at least 120,000 voters.
This particular election has many firsts attached to it. The election marked the first time a leader will be elected, in a major Thai political, and the individual opinion of the entire party members will be a determining factor.
IPFS— Decentralised File Storage System
Still talking about the use of blockchain technology in Thailand, it was recently reported that, following threats of government censorship against a political resistance music video, the video which managed to gain about 30 million views in two weeks is now successfully stored on the blockchain. The video is now referred to as the first political sensitive video to get stored on a blockchain network.
This was achieved through the use of a decentralised file storage system, named, IPFS. It was reported that an “unknown user saved a copy of “Rap Against Dictatorship” in a transaction on the Zcoin blockchain which is built on the Zerocoin protocol.”
The IPFS has also employed during the voting exercise of Thailand’s Democrat Party primary elections. Voters were able to access the voting platform using a mobile voting app that required photo ID submission or manual voting at physical voting stations operating on a Raspberry Pi system. The function of the IPFS in this scenario was to aid the storage of encrypted data packets containing identification documents and voting tallies.
In order to guarantee their immutability and auditability, the hashes were then stored on the Zcoin blockchain.