Interest in the use of blockchain outside the cryptocurrency industry first became widespread in 2016. That was when the first corporate blockchain consortiums R3 and Hyperledger were created, and giants from various fields became seriously interested in the technology: Microsoft, IBM, SAP, Maersk and many others. Essentially, a new direction in the development of data storage technologies appeared - distributed registries (DLT).

The first experiments with blockchain did not bring any stunning results, and in 2017-2018, public attention was focused on the cryptocurrency hype, which ended with the fall of the quotes of the main cryptocurrencies by 80-90% from historical maximums.

Recently, interest in blockchain voting and its applications has revived, but the approach has become more balanced and no longer has the desire to use blockchain for the sake of blockchain as another fashionable technology. Now developers are assessing the real effectiveness of implementing blockchain in those areas where it is truly useful.

Blockchain Voting as a Distributed Ledger Solution

Critics of blockchain usually highlight two aspects as the key problems of this technology: low throughput (for most cryptocurrencies – no more than a few dozen transactions per second), and the constantly growing volume of the local database, which in the most loaded blockchains (for example, Ethereum) is already measured in terabytes.

The capacity problem has been virtually solved in new-generation blockchains: EOS, Tron, Cardano, etc. They can process up to several thousand transactions per second, which is more than enough for a distributed ledger.

At the same time, for storing limited amounts of text information, which most accounting databases consist of, the amount of information in the blockchain grows quite slowly. Thus, using blockchain voting technology as a distributed registry can be quite effective based on existing solutions. These include government registries, control of intellectual property, tracking supply chains, storing medical data, etc.

Another promising area is conducting voting and polls using a distributed registry.

Blockchain Voting

Conducting various votes, primarily political ones, using blockchain is not a new idea. The first surge in activity in using blockchain in elections occurred back in 2016, when the advantages of the new technology were appreciated.

Back in November 2015, the US company Blockchain Technologies Corp proposed replacing outdated voting machines with an electronic system on the blockchain, but the initiative did not receive support.

In the 2016 presidential elections, both major US political parties – the Republican and Democratic – became interested in blockchain, and the company Follow My Vote attempted to conduct a parallel vote count on the blockchain. Members of the European Parliament also conducted research on this topic.

At the same time, a proposal to use blockchain in the Moscow platform Active Citizen for voting by residents of the capital on issues of urban policy and improvement also appeared in Russia. Unlike many ideas that remained on paper, the project developed successfully and at the end of 2017, the transfer of the electronic referendum system to blockchain began.

In 2018-2019, blockchain is increasingly entering political life around the world.

The US state of West Virginia launched a mobile app for voting on blockchain as part of the state Senate elections, and this year, the city of Denver, the capital of Colorado, put forward a similar initiative.

The Swiss canton of Zug, famous for its Crypto Valley, introduced a blockchain-based electronic voting system last summer.

Asian governments have shown particular interest in blockchain. The South Korean Electoral Commission, with government support, is testing a mobile app voting system. And the country's capital, Seoul, is integrating a voting system into the ICON blockchain system, which is used to provide city residents with a full range of government services.

Last fall, the Democratic Party of Thailand held its internal elections (primaries) using blockchain, and based on the successful experiment, the country plans to implement the technology in elections at all levels.

And the Japanese science city of Tsukuba used blockchain for residents to vote on issues of choosing state infrastructure development programs.

In Russia, where the authorities' negative attitude towards cryptocurrencies has become commonplace, blockchain is nevertheless finding more and more applications, including in public life.

Ella Pamfilova, the Chairperson of the Central Election Commission, admits that presidential and parliamentary elections could be held using blockchain in the future.

Last December, the Polys blockchain system, developed by Kaspersky Lab, was used in the elections to the youth parliament in Saratov.

The Party of Growth, known for its support of technical innovations, held an inter-party vote on blockchain at a meeting of the Federal Political Council.

A pilot project of electronic voting on blockchain will also be used in the upcoming elections to the Moscow City Duma.

Thus, The prospects for using blockchain voting in various types of elections are becoming increasingly clear. But we should not lose sight of the possibilities of its application in related areas, such as organizing and conducting public opinion polls.

Although blockchain voting has seen growth, the use of blockchain voting systems in surveys remains underexplored.

Blockchain Surveys: An Empty Niche

Despite the popularity of blockchain in the field of voting, the technology is still practically not in demand in conducting surveys.

Perhaps the only example of conducting a large-scale survey using blockchain is the VTsIOM experiment during the presidential elections on March 18, 2018 in Russia.

At that time, the results of a survey based on exit polls, in which 162,601 people took part, were stored on the Ethereum blockchain. But blockchain was no longer used in other VTsOM surveys.

The use of blockchain in surveys can be beneficial for all participants in the process - both from a technical and economic point of view.

For companies or public organizations conducting surveys, the benefits of blockchain are undeniable: The data from the survey results is immutable, so the objectivity of the process can always be confirmed. The survey results are publicly available, which eliminates the possibility of forgery and distortion. Answers to questions are entered directly by respondents and immediately stored in the blockchain, rather than being processed by intermediaries. This reduces costs and increases confidence in the results. There is an opportunity to increase audience interest by offering token rewards for completing surveys. The audience for surveys is practically not limited by geographical and political factors.

On the other hand, the use of blockchain makes participation in surveys beneficial for respondents as well: Reward in cryptocurrency (tokens) immediately after voting or completion of a survey, without intermediaries and commissions. The ability to check and share your answers at any time. Open access to the results and overall voting process. Participate in the survey at a convenient time and from any device. No need to trust the organizer, confidence in the secure storage of all results. In specialized surveys, there is an opportunity to earn extra money on your knowledge and correct predictions.

From the above, we can conclude that blockchain is almost ideal for conducting online surveys.

Read more : Choosing a Blockchain for Your Business Project

Existing Blockchain Survey Projects

However, a rather paradoxical situation is developing. Despite the obvious advantages of blockchain for all interested parties, there are practically no real applications in this market niche.

At present, only two projects worthy of attention can be mentioned:

ClearPoll is a startup founded in 2017 that offers users the ability to create and participate in online polls, earning token rewards. Interestingly, the poll data storage scheme and rewards are split across different blockchains. The survey information is stored on a private blockchain, which is only accessible to the project developers and users, which raises doubts about the transparency of the system and the immutability of the data. Rewards are awarded in POLL tokens of the ERC-20 standard, circulating on the Ethereum blockchain. The project developers are still somewhat active and voting is conducted on the platform, but overall the project is more dead than alive, and the token price is slowly but surely declining.

Russian-language social network Opinion, specializing in conducting surveys and predicting the outcome of various events based on the wisdom of the crowd. The system runs on the EOS blockchain. The project was launched in early 2019 and continues to develop. Polls are implemented in the Opinion system as smart contracts that automatically take into account user responses in the blockchain. Smart contracts distribute rewards in tokens among users who have given the correct forecast or participated in the survey. The system allocates a pool of tokens automatically or the author of the survey allocates the reward from his own funds. Recording the results in the blockchain ensures fair distribution of the reward and protection of user responses from loss or counterfeiting. Social network administrators create some of the polls themselves to give users the opportunity to earn tokens.

Conclusion

The current technical level of blockchain voting development allows for the organization of a platform for conducting online surveys, voting, and forecasting, but this niche in the market remains virtually unfilled.

Most projects are in a protracted development stage, from which many of them will probably not emerge. But those who manage to gain a foothold in the market and attract an audience have every chance of successful development.