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"The blockchain method primarily used by those engaging in cryptocurrency transactions is a decentralized mechanism where all the information is stored in blocks, can be viewed and altered by registered users. In the case of Sierra Leone elections, allows the votes to be seen by voters who are registered within the system, in the public ledgers, but only allowed authorized persons to make any changes, this, in turn, prevents the chances of fraud since the voting information is available to all the blockchain users."
I would personally like it if they would explain the mechanics of their so-called "blockchain" to us mortals.
As I understand a blockchain, it is an extensible data structure that (when used in a bitcoin context) incorporates sequentially applied, recursively structured self-referential checksum mechanisms to counter efforts at tampering with the contents of the blocks; usually, via recursive encryption.
~childo
(Score: 2) by arslan on Thursday March 15 2018, @10:05PM
Uhh.. blockchains are immutable. Unless your WORM storage is managed in a replicated and distributed manner and open to audit by everyone then it is still susceptible to tampering in a single or at least small set of location, either by rogues compromising the WORM provider's facilities or the provider themselves. You can't do that with BC given there's no central figure or management of the data. The closest thing to a central intermediary is the maintainers of the code base - as long as that is open sourced and available for audit then it is a level safer than any closed blackbox service.
You've obviously not grown up in a "democratic" country where even the electoral committee that hand counts the paper votes does exactly what the Prime Minister for life wants them to - I have. BC, when done right, allows everyone to audit the data and provides the anonymity to boot.
BC provides the tamper proof once the record is in. As for falsification, anything can be falsified at the point of entry, regardless if it is electronics or not. That is a different problem that will require a different solution.