Track the Ongoing US Election on Ethereum and EOS Blockchains

The presidential campaign is currently ongoing in the United States of America. Interestingly, election results can now be tracked on the Ethereum and EOS blockchains.

This is the first time U.S. presidential election results will be published on the blockchain. According to reports, the result will be posted on Ethereum and EOS by the Associated Press (AP).

Apart from providing access to results, the AP furthermore disclosed that it would be making use of blockchain in its API. Simply put, anyone trying to access AP official results will also be able to verify its authenticity using blockchain.

Social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter are also hard at work to prevent any form of result manipulations. They are working around the clock to prevent any form of false claims about results that might sway last-minute voters. The use of blockchain to time-stamp results is a step in the right direction to ensuring free and fair elections. The AP’s use of blockchain could result in a total revamp of how elections are conducted in the near future.

Speaking on the AP’s use of blockchain, the director of data licensing at the firm, Dwayne Desaulniers, disclosed that the AP has set a high standard in terms of vote counting and result publishing. Notably, the Associated Press (AP) has been actively involved in the U.S. elections since 1848.

The company’s API (application programming interface) provides the general public with access to its data. First, software developers design a mobile app. Then, during the election, the app harvests data from time to time from the API. Data gathered could range from vote counts and delegate counts to information like race results, etc.

The back-end tracking process

All AP results will be posted on Wikipedia’s blockchain-based competitor, Everipedia. The platform is built majorly with popular oracle platform Chainlink.

The data posted by the AP will first be verified before it is posted to both the Ethereum and EOS blockchains. To access the results, users will need to pay a small fee known as “gas.”

Daniel Kochis, Chainlink’s head of business development, pointed out that creating more use cases for blockchain tech is a major step “to realizing its full potential.” He also added that publishing U.S. election results on the blockchain is a major milestone.

Previously, blockchain tech has been used to track minor elections within states. This, however, is the first time the tech will be employed in a major election like the U.S. presidential election.

However, not everyone is in support of the use of blockchain in the electoral process. The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) recently disclosed their displeasure in the use of blockchain technology for elections.

At the time of writing, ETH was up by 0.6% and was trading at $380.33. EOS on the other hand, was up by 0.3% and was trading at $2.32.

Find out more about the effects of the U.S. elections on the Altcoin Buzz YouTube channel.

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