On April 25, the Utah GOP conference reportedly picked their nominees utilizing the blockchain voting platform, Voatz. This platform was beforehand criticized for quite a few safety points in previous election occasions.
As Forbes reported, the co-founder and CEO of Voatz, Nimit Sawhney, acknowledged that the platform “carried out as anticipated” and managed to course of 93% of registered delegate votes.
Voatz reportedly successful in Utah GOP conference
Utah’s GOP chairman, Derek Brown, praised the app, stating that the suggestions obtained was overwhelmingly optimistic, and the turnout was phenomenal, beating different conventions that utilized the system.
Brown added the next concerning Voatz:
“Utilizing Voatz allowed us to digitally recreate our normal conference procedures and implement know-how in a method that made the method extra handy and safe.”
The applying makes use of blockchain know-how to confirm a person’s id via biometrics and facial recognition. The know-how has been topic to pilot exams for political events, universities, non-profit organizations, amongst others.
Nevertheless, Voatz has not been with out controversy. Not too long ago launched reviews warn of safety flaws within the platform.
Criticisms on the platform’s safety
Cointelegraph reported on March 13 that the appliance was topic to a public audit by the safety agency, Path of Bits.
The app’s lack of transparency when it comes to information safety was criticized within the 122-page report, which famous that Voatz didn’t use customized chaincode or sensible contracts:
“A number of high-risk findings had been the results of information validation points and confused deputies within the core server that might enable one voter to masquerade as one other earlier than even touching the blockchain.”
Furthermore, West Virginia decided on April 27 that it will not use the blockchain-based platform to forged votes for residents with disabilities and residents residing overseas for his or her major elections. As a substitute, these residents will use a platform provided by Democracy Dwell.
The state was a pioneer in implementing Voatz in 2018, making the transfer shocking for some.