Anonymous Block Chain, Electronic Voting Using Linkable Ring Signatures

Abstract

Electronic voting is the use of electronic means to cast and count votes. The system must be able to offer fairness, trust, transparency, privacy, integrity, and availability of votes. The application of block chain in electronic voting seems to match the above qualities of an electronic voting system. However, recent researches have shown that block chain technology lacks anonymity. Transactions are pseudonymous and not anonymous. For this cause, a proposed method to use linkable ring signatures in block chain electronic voting system provides anonymity. With this system, a voter can verify votes with the highest level of anonymity from other voters. Voters can also tally the votes without the use of centralized third party. The proposed system will be implemented using Ethereum protocol. It uses elliptic curve cryptography to provide authentication and non-repudiation, immutability of vote records through hashing algorithms, transparency, and accessibility due to its decentralized nature as well as voter anonymity.