Electronic Voting System with Segmented Blockchain and Dummy Transactions
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Solution Overview
Problem
In electronic voting systems that utilize blockchain for reliability and secrecy, voters and their votes become associated when voting results are disclosed, compromising the secret ballot.
Innovation Solution
An electronic voting system design featuring separate authentication and voting servers, using distinct blockchains for authentication and voting data, with dummy transaction data to maintain voter anonymity and prevent vote alteration, ensuring that authentication and voting IDs are different and dummy votes are not associated with actual votes.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a blockchain including voting results is disclosed to ensure transparency and reliability, then vote integrity is improved, but voter anonymity deteriorates as voters and votes become associated
Solution Approach 1:
The system segments the voting process into two distinct blockchains: an authentication blockchain that records voter identity and authentication status, and a voting blockchain that records only vote selections without voter identification. This segmentation allows the voting results to be transparent and verifiable while keeping voter identities separate and anonymous.
Solution Approach 2:
The system introduces an intermediary anonymous identifier that links authenticated voters to their votes without revealing personal information. This intermediary acts as a mediator between the authentication blockchain and voting blockchain, allowing vote verification while preserving voter anonymity through the use of cryptographic tokens or anonymous credentials.
2Loss of information
If dummy transaction data is added to maintain voter anonymity, then voter secrecy is improved, but system complexity increases due to separate authentication and voting servers and blockchains
Solution Approach 1:
The system divides the voting infrastructure into separate authentication servers and voting servers, each managing their own blockchain. This segmentation allows dummy transaction data to be added to the voting blockchain without affecting the authentication process, maintaining voter secrecy while organizing system complexity into manageable, independent modules.
Solution Approach 2:
The system changes the parameter of transaction data by introducing dummy votes that have the same structure and format as real votes but contain no actual voting information. These dummy transactions are indistinguishable from real votes on the blockchain, maintaining voter secrecy through parameter manipulation rather than structural complexity.
3Loss of information
If distinct blockchains are used for authentication and voting data, then vote secrecy is improved, but data synchronization complexity increases between multiple servers
Solution Approach 1:
The system segments data storage into two independent blockchains: one for authentication data and one for voting data. Each blockchain is maintained by dedicated servers that synchronize only their respective data types. This segmentation reduces synchronization complexity by eliminating the need to keep mixed data types consistent across all servers while still ensuring vote secrecy through architectural separation.
Data Source
AI summary
A method for controlling one of a plurality of voting servers in an electronic voting system is provided. The method includes receiving, from a terminal, transaction data including voting data, and generating, using a processor, a block including the transaction data and dummy transaction data. The dummy transaction data including dummy voting data that is not associated with the voting data. The method further connects the generated block to a blockchain, the blockchain being stored in a memory.