West Virginia (USA) Is Introducing A Blockchain Mobile/Cell Phone Voting App For Federal Elections!
YES you read this right!
Although I am not going to go too deeply into it all as far as this post goes, because I will hook up the two relevant News Articles I found on the topic and you can read it direct from the horses mouth, I had to share this news here, just felt that it was way tooooo important to leave it unmentioned!
West Virginia ha already had pilot projects last Spring which have lead to this whopper decision!
So they have done it the right way, first test it out, then apply it in an efficient and orderly manner.
Note: Love the state's Latin motto Montani Semper Liberi (English: "mountaineers are always free")
The trial was all LEGAL as it was done in accordance with the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act, and their spouses and dependents.
So there is no way in hell that any "career politicians" can argue against it.
Note: When I say "career politicians" I refer to all those who have never earned a cent in the real world, or should I say, who have NEVER earned a living without the influences of the contacts they have in their "political party"!
So, without any further hesitations or boring introductions, here are the two articles I found on this topic:
CNN
West Virginia to introduce mobile phone voting for midterm elections
&
cointelegraph.com
West Virginia Offers Overseas Residents Blockchain Voting Option for Midterm Elections
Now tell me this isn't a piece of news that is literally rocking the boat for all those "career politicians" and their outdated ways of doing things!
LOVE IT!
Hope you find this little piece of new as interesting as I did, and don't mind my sharing mainstream media links here, I couldn't resist when it came to this news.
Thanks for reading
This is some big news. Elections have always felt like an obvious place where blockchain technology can improve upon the current process. If or should I say when the U.S. utilizes blockchain for nationwide elections it will be a complete game changer.
I agree, @ross-early, I think blockchain voting nationwide would significantly alter the trajectory of a terribly broken system. I remember when Mickey Mouse and Jesus were NOT registered, active voters in real elections 😆 Recent example:
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/dec/30/alabama-election-roy-moore-write-in-votes
But going back to 2008, cartoon characters were upsetting votes in several US states. Safe to say voting has become entirely corrupted and the people are being punished if we do not enact some meaningful change. Blockchain might clean up the system a bit, but it'll take much more than that to repair a corrupted system that does not run on honesty, transparency, or the best interest of the people. It's high time for something to change.
Agreed @grow-pro. Campaign finance is another issue that will prevent things from moving the proper direction. Hopefully someday the system will work in a way that encourages everyone to participate and then we will see decisions being made in the country that truly represent the majority opinion. BTW thanks for the follow!
I wrote about this program when they first initiated the pilot program, just about 4 months ago: West Virginia Piloting a Blockchain Voting App 🗳 A 'pilot' to help deployed military voters
There was some controversy surrounding the money/investors involved, but when do politics not have scandalous money and questionable action involved? LOL
I think it is great to have a way for absentee voters, especially those who are deployed in the Armed Forces, to be able to excercise their vote. Will be nice to have a system that is open, transparent, and immutable for the world to check. I think it is safe to say that any way we can reduce possibility of corruption in politics, the better off the people will be.
Resteemed this one so hard I think I broke the sound barrier.
I think I like the sound of that idea.
AwEsOmE NeWs and one more nail in the coffin of our masters................
We still won't pick the candidates. Voting for puppet A over puppet B doesn't help our cause for individual liberty.
Yes, this will cut down on voter fraud and some other issues with current voting, but voting in general is immoral anyway.
A majority is still ruling a minority by voting the way we do today. It just doesn't work in our favor long term.
Give oligarchs something to take over, and it will be taken over.
Voting, in the current day, is a corrupted system. However, doing nothing seldom changes anything for the better. In fact, some could argue it is easier to take advantage of those who do nothing to defend their own rights.
Agreed. But doesn't that suggest that we cannot prevail by passive idling or inactivity. I have conflicting opinions of elections, but I continue to circle back to this one point:
If we give oligarchs the right to rule us, in many cases they are self appointed, allowing this is in many ways a submission. Now, if voting is ineffective and cannot remove these people from power, then we have to consider alternatives. The alternative cannot be inactivity. It is proven that voting is not our most effective means of checking the controls, but what else do we have?
Aside from physical action, it is up to us to provide ourselves with a better means of control. It is individual liberty that needs to win the 'popularity contest', not the "glad-hands".
Is it moral for individuals to allow the overtaking of others? Is it moral to have solutions to a worldwide problem and sell these solutions to the highest bidder? Is it our responsibility to seek more honest and transparent means of living? How can we do this without physical violence and upheaval? As far as I have read, human history suggests that force is the only real eject button for governments.
As we have seen with so many countries having their ruler overtaken and the people overpowered, there is no morality in killing people to assume their property for personal gain. But hey, tell that to the world leaders.
If voting is not a moral act and neither is engaging violence against a party who has not engaged you first - then what next? I truly do not have an answer and it remains a conflicting issue for me.
If voting is immoral, what is consensus? What does that make Steemit? Or the "decentralized" (run by a privy few..LOL) systems that function solely by consensus - are these systems equally immoral? Is one more or less than the other?
I'm just not sure I have any feelings swaying me to either side and as I said seems to conflict with my own beliefs either way I slice this. It's a tricky subject for sure and maybe our consistent failures throughout history suggest we still have yet to generate a better way.
I should have clarified that election voting, for a ruler, is immoral. Voting in general isn't necessarily. As the exampe you gave, Steemit uses voting. We are not voting for rulers though. Witnesses are voted for, but I don't mind the majority here deciding who gets to be a witness.
Those witnesses don't really rule over me. I suppose they could though if enough bad witnesses were voted in, and then they decided to "redistribute" (steal) everyone's wealth on here to make things "fair." That would ruin this platform though, so I don't really worry about it happening.
It's like the difference between a democracy and a republic. There's really not much of a difference. The government already ignores the rule of law, and the US Consitution isn't followed. You still have one group ruling a smaller group in other words. Even if I vote for liberty's cause, I will always be horribly outnumbered too.
That's really the main problem, and I don't see a solution to it either. What if we will always be greatly outnumbered by those who want to be ruled? It's something we need to consider. The more I see and learn, the more I suspect that's the truth of our situation. Voting certainly isn't going to help us either.
The whole system is designed, on purpose of course, to give the illusion of control to the people. They have zero control though. Voters don't pick the candidates. Voters will never have the power, wealth, and influence of the large corporations (not just the banksters) either. Worst of all, people who love liberty will never be in the majority under a system designed around pillaging and theft.
We've talked about this before many times, and it is a great issue to discuss. We need to talk about this issue because the more we talk about it the more prepared we will be for the worst situation. I'll continue to hope for a solution and for something better, but I'll also prepare for the worst. That worst scenario, as I see things today, is that we will have a war on American soil.
It will be fought between two groups of collectivists, and one of those groups will win. Both are our enemy, and they are not going to be kind to us as the minority that refuses to join their collective.
Well said, my friend. It is a tough issue to tackle - maybe even a conundrum of sorts. Although, here on Steemit - the very same issues exist to some extent.
This is strikingly similar to how the witness system functions here, not entirely, but oddly similar. Large proxy voters selling votes are the ones who appoint or remove top 20 witnesses, obviously, as we can see the largest voter has appointed the top witnesses and we can see their vote is by far beyond anything a collective user base can overturn.
When voting becomes a profitable business opportunity, it has become entirely and utterly dysfunctional. When we elect based upon how much the candidate paid the voter, we are no longer operating under any sort of consensus.
Indeed! We have discussed this for quite some time and I am still no closer to a solution than I was years ago. I just do not understand how to conquer the barriers that we, as a species, have allowed to be imposed upon us.
We seem to be right in the middle, as you've said, between two sides. Neither of them value liberty, which is why they have two camps of thoughtless drones waiting to fight for that which they cannot understand - and it is not Liberty, we know that!
Hope in a better place is all we need, but a backup plan for the worst won't hurt us either. Planning to remain the same surely is no plan at all.
I hope for change, but also do not rely on others to generate the change I wish to see in the world.
If only politicians were paid based on action and results - none of them would have food to eat or a place to sleep...
One solution would be to remove all profit entirely from positions of leadership (governance, not government). People in positions of power shouldn't be paid at all for them. That would fix a lot of the corruption rather quickly. It's not going to happen though...most likely.
We can always hope 😆
But I think you're right, it would solve great number of problems, but then maybe introduce new ones - who knows? I often joke that I don't trust anyone who wants the job and we would need to double check those eager to do it for free, just to ensure they are not using their assumed power for personal gain in other ways. It goes beyond salary these days, unfortunately.