Vote for (or run for) US President in 2024 on the blockchain
The Voting Block USA Initiative is on! We are reading for our January blockchain voting dApp debut. Join us and help show we can all 'vote' for US President privately, securely, and efficiently.
We the People
Dear fellow (US) members of the Web3 community—Our nation calls us. It is time we rally together and offer our creativity, intellectual resources, and spirit to bring our country back together.
We no longer trust our institutions. Sadly, our least trusted institution is Congress, with a 8 percent trust rate. As part of this epidemic, 55 percent of us no longer trust our voting systems. If we no longer believe in our voting system, by definition, we are no longer living in a democracy. The right to a fair vote is democracy.
The heart of the American spirit is freedom—The freedom to express who you really are without ridicule and chart your destiny with the faith and encouragement of others. No community on the planet has benefitted more from that spirit than Silicon Valley, which, in turn, gave the world the microprocessor, Mac, the commercial Internet, cloud apps, the iPhone and Android, and now the fledgling Web3 computing paradigm, which when fulfilled, will be our greatest gift of all.
Voting Block USA is a non-partisan, non-profit project dedicated to educating the public on how Web3 innovation (including blockchain, AI, crypto, and metaverse) can help create a more private, secure, and efficient public sector.
Our first objective is to launch a blockchain-based ‘voting system’ for the 2024 Presidential elections to prove to US citizens we can vote privately, securely, and efficiently without the need to trust any human, institution, or centralized authority. And just as importantly, we can offer up a glorious metaphor for what is possible throughout all public agencies and services.
“I don’t think everybody in DC actually fully realizes how powerful the crypto voting community block is. 56 million people in the US have already used cryptocurrencies. That’s 5x as many people that have an electric vehicle. The 2024 election is our time to hold candidates’ feet to the fire and say, What is your position on the possibilities of blockchain and crypto?”
—Brian Armstrong, Founder & CEO, Coinbase
To make this all happen and launch the VB USA platform by January, we are looking for some early adopters who express the American spirit by joining us. For the record, we took a private poll of our VB team and advisors, and between us, we are supporting seven different candidates from all sides of the aisle, so we have faith we can do this together—that is an accomplishment in itself. We hope you share our faith and desire to work together as one.
VB USA platform features
Voting Block USA (VB USA) will offer US citizens a Web3 platform to both vote and run for the US Presidential election in 2024. An outline of our platform spec is below, but here are the key features.
Voting for President: To be validated for registration, ‘voters’ must be currently registered to vote in their state of residence to validate their ID. Voters can vote 24/7 from anywhere as soon as the platform launches and may change their vote right up to the close of polls on November 5th, 2024, at 8 PM PST. (Note: This effort includes encouraging people to register to vote in the real world too.) Our cost per voter is $1.00, so we are grateful for any support!
Running For President: On day one, ‘voters’ will be able to cast a vote for official US Presidential candidates. Whether current candidates complete their VB USA profiles or not—and we will actively encourage them to do so—will ultimately show how much they support tamper-free voting and government services.
New candidates: Virtually any US citizen that meets the current constitutional legal standards (with $1,000) can ‘run’ for President in the VB USA system. This feature is designed to broaden our appeal and encourage new ideas and new candidates. We also want to demonstrate how archaic the current, paper-ballot-constrained system is, which results in candidates having to raise upwards of $1 billion from all sorts of self-interested parties to become President.
President profile
Once validated and qualified to run, candidates must answer three questions with character-limited answers so voters can evaluate candidates side-by-side:
Why are you running for President?
Why are you qualified to be President?
What are your differentiating strengths and advantages that make you the best candidate for the job?
Outline your top 12 ‘Leadership Priorities’ for your administration.
Candidates may provide up to 12 updatable outside links for bios, campaign news, and other story links.
Real-time election stats and polls: VB USA will offer a sortable and filter-friendly index and ranking of all candidates by the number of VB USA votes with corresponding electoral totals earned nationally and state-by-state, as well as profile page views and other trending stats.
Commemorative and limited edition NFTs: Every VB USA registered voter will receive an artistically architected NFT, and VB USA will be offering other limited edition NFTs for donors.
"The biggest benefit of blockchain-based voting is that it offers a way to have a tamper-proof electronic vote counting and voter identification system that anyone can use, without needing to trust any single person, institution, or centralized service provider."
—Vitalik Buterin, Co-founder of Ethereum
The VB USA blockchain set-up
The VB USA dApp is designed for anywhere, anytime voting. It supports Chrome, Safari, Fox, and Edge browsers, and it is also available as an Apple and Android app to support
Blockchain:
Base (developed by Coinbase, a US public company) is an Ethereum Layer-2 blockchain that offers the security, stability, and scalability we need to power the VB USA dApp. Base also offers low, fixed fees per vote.
To run a secure election with proper governance rules and to satisfy Voatz’s node diversity criteria, the primary Base node is connected to 15 additional geographically distributed nodes. All nodes are based in the US to further protect from outside tampering.
All data is encrypted end-to-end from the voter’s smartphone through transmission to the VM USA nodes and while at rest on secure storage.
All voting transactions are transparent and auditable to both the voter and the public on Base the supporting network of nodes.
Identity Verification and Security: (Provided by our Developer Voatz)
VB USA’s voter registration uses facial recognition technology to verify your identity, then pairs it to your phone’s security PIN or biometric key, in addition to our blockchain design to secure your info and your vote. This approach maintains voter privacy, and your data is never stored or shared.
Registration will require a US passport, driver’s license, state ID, and an existing registered voter in their state of residence. VB USA validates voters against existing state voter registration databases and generates a unique state-compliant Voter ID. Once a voter is verified, all personal data is deleted.
Once validated, voters are allowed to vote, change their vote, run for President, check out the daily poll numbers and analytics, participate in ongoing polls, and other opportunities to interact and learn.
Our system provides links to vote.org and usa.gov so people can easily register in their state or update their real-world voter registration.
Risk Assessment & Audits
Voatz routinely undergoes rigorous, independent third-party penetration testing, network architecture assessments, and mobile code analyses to safeguard against cybersecurity threats.
Commemorative NFT and limited edition NFTs
VB USA registered voters will be able to connect their crypto wallets using the Connect Wallet bridge to the VB USA app to receive a commemorative NFT and donate and receive other limited edition NFTs. After all, we will be ‘The first to vote for US President on the blockchain covering all 50 States’ —So that’s something special to commemorate!
Shout out to Voatz
VB USA’s core platform was developed by Boston-based Voatz, an award-winning mobile-first elections dApp company founded in 2014 and recipient of over $11 million in venture capital funding. The Voatz platform was the first blockchain application used in a real-world presidential election in 2020 in the state of Utah. Since its inception, Voatz has served more than 2.3 million voters across 125 elections in 6 countries.
Join us by raising your hand and saying ‘Yes!’
Blockchain voting has the potential to bring back trust in the US system and bring citizens together on a privacy initiative that most of us can support. It’s a noble cause, and we need the support of every member of our community to meet our January launch deadline and keep the momentum going.
Apple cofounder Steve Jobs once said that if you win the support of the early adopters, everyone else will follow. You all are the inventors, investors, and early adopters of Web3 technologies. If you raise your hand and say ‘Yes!’ we will reach the mountaintop.
All supporters will receive the Voting Block USA SubStack newsletter to stay posted, and you can get in touch with us anytime at TheEditor@CryptoniteVentures.com
Key influencers speaking out in favor of blockchain-based voting
"Blockchain-based voting has the potential to reshape the way we think about democracy, enabling more direct and secure participation by citizens in shaping their governments."
—Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI
"Blockchain technology can help eliminate voter suppression and enhance the security and accessibility of elections, making them more inclusive and representative."
—Perianne Boring, Founder and President of the Chamber of Digital Commerce
"Blockchain-based mobile voting would make our elections more secure and accessible. It will also broaden access to voting, reduce the influence of big money in politics, and strengthen democracy."
—Andrew Yang, Entrepreneur and 2020 Presidential Candidate
‘Blockchain-based voting can enhance the inclusiveness of elections, allowing citizens to securely cast their votes from anywhere in the world.’
—Maria Ressa, CEO and Executive Editor, Rappler
"Blockchain has the potential to provide secure, transparent, and auditable systems for voting, which could enhance trust in the democratic process."
—Sheila Warren, Head of Blockchain and Data Policy, World Economic Forum
"Election security is one of the most critical issues facing our democracy today. Blockchain technology can play a critical role in addressing this challenge by securing voting processes and ensuring that more eligible voters can participate in a secure and convenient manner.
—Brad Smith, President of Microsoft
"Blockchain-based voting can increase voter turnout by making it easier for people to participate, especially those who face barriers like long distances to polling stations or physical disabilities."
— Joseph Lubin, Co-founder of Ethereum and ConsenSys
‘Blockchain-based voting introduces a new era of electoral transparency, making the process more resilient against hacking and fraud.’
—R. David Edelman, Director of Project on Technology, Economy & National Security at MIT
"By leveraging blockchain technology, we can create a voting system that is not only more secure but also more convenient, allowing people to vote from the comfort of their own homes while ensuring the integrity of the process."
—Brian Forde, Former White House Senior Advisor for Mobile and Data Innovation
"Blockchain technology can bring voting systems into the digital age, ensuring that every vote is counted accurately and that the will of the people is truly reflected in the results."
— Mike Novogratz, Founder and CEO of Galaxy Digital Holdings
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