Smartmatic Studying Blockchain Implementation for Philippine Elections

Smartmatic, the provider for electronic voting systems in the country, is looking at blockchain to facilitate elections in the Philippines in the future.

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Smartmatic Philippines, the provider for electronic voting systems in the country, is looking at blockchain technology to facilitate elections in the Philippines in the future.

Jane Coo, president of Smartmatic Philippines, floated the idea after Smartmatic PH’s parent company is able to successfully use its blockchain technology, called TIVI to facilitate elections in Finnmark, Norway.

In that particular election, Finnmark residents needed to decide whether to merge with a neighboring county or not. The citizens are able to vote even before polling stations were set up. Voting early and voting online happened because of the blockchain.

“We’re still studying if this (blockchain technology) would be applicable here in the Philippines. Our system is extremely secure and transparent. Blockchain will make it even more secure and transparent,” – Jane Coo, Smartmatic Philippines

While Smartmatic has already has a system to allow people to vote online, coursing it through the blockchain will make online voting more secure and transparent. Because it is decentralized, data won’t be stored on just one computer because every other computer will have a copy of the data. Hence, it will become more difficult for a record to be altered.

Smartmatic also used blockchain as a voting solution in March 2016 for the Utah Republican Party.

Smartmatic’s contract with the Philippine government to supply vote counting machines for the May 2019 elections was renewed this February 2018.

Sources: PhilStar, Manila Standard, Harvard Business School

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