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Honestly, a very naïve solution. I tried formalizing the protocol but there are so many inconsistencies. E.g. the ephemeral key is mentioned briefly... Who gen

by kaoD 10y ago

Honestly, a very naïve solution. I tried formalizing the protocol but there are so many inconsistencies. E.g. the ephemeral key is mentioned briefly... Who generates this key? Who encrypts the message? What's the purpose? Critique of the few parts that are clear: 1. It mentions a vote blockchain. Why blockchain? There's (apparently) no reason to have a chain of votes here. Even a spreadsheet would be fine. Buzzword alert! I know it's irrelevant but it's a huge red flag that a blockchain is crammed there for no reason at all. 2. "the government can know who individuals voted for" This is a no-no. HUGE no-no. TFA trivializes the impact but I definitely wouldn't vote in a system where anyone but me can verify my vote. 3. Even if you can verify your own vote, that's pretty much it for verifiability. Everything else relies on trusting election officials. What? And I stopped analyzing there because frankly that's pretty much a broken system.

maemilius 10y ago
In regards to 2, for most Americans, it's probably a fairly trivial* matter to infer who they voted for. For a large number, almost their entire lives are digitized in some form or another. I wouldn't be at all surprised if a modern AI could deduce your voting preference just using your public data. EDIT: *In retrospect, "trivial" is probably vastly understating the difficulty. However, I still don't think this is a "hard" problem.
- kaoD 10y ago
  That's a personal choice and, even then, you really can't be sure. Someone might be a Dem in public and vote Rep in the privacy of the booth. I'm sure this happens a lot more than you think.
Findeton 10y ago
Yep, the blockchain is uncalled for. I work at an electronic voting company and sometimes we get clients that want to add the blockchain for the system. We patiently explain it to them that yeah, the blockchain has some interesting properties that can be used but that it's not really necessary and it would only be used by a small piece of the voting system...

by kaoD 10y ago

maemilius 10y ago

In regards to 2, for most Americans, it's probably a fairly trivial* matter to infer who they voted for. For a large number, almost their entire lives are digitized in some form or another. I wouldn't be at all surprised if a modern AI could deduce your voting preference just using your public data. EDIT: *In retrospect, "trivial" is probably vastly understating the difficulty. However, I still don't think this is a "hard" problem.

kaoD 10y ago
That's a personal choice and, even then, you really can't be sure. Someone might be a Dem in public and vote Rep in the privacy of the booth. I'm sure this happens a lot more than you think.

Findeton 10y ago

Yep, the blockchain is uncalled for. I work at an electronic voting company and sometimes we get clients that want to add the blockchain for the system. We patiently explain it to them that yeah, the blockchain has some interesting properties that can be used but that it's not really necessary and it would only be used by a small piece of the voting system...