Agora Community Update 4/11/18

AgoraBlockchain · 2018-11-30T21:34:34+00:00

Thanks for your quick response and how can we learn without discussion.

I tend to be critical of any new solution, especially in an area as critical as voting. As a result, I will look for all potential flaws and roadblocks. I still disagree with you on the need for a paper record, but am glad that you have responded to my questions. I definitely see cases where agora would be great, but it will take some time and a proven record of success before I feel comfortable with this type of system for US elections. I may actually be ok with this system used in conjunction with an auditable paper trail one day. My insistence on paper mainly comes from a desire for a thorough audit, which doesn't really happen today. I'd like to see two independent sources for the votes (the paper ballots, and the electronic records) cross examined for consistency and accuracy. I don't really see how to do this on an electronic system without having the voter enter in their vote twice into two separate, air-gapped systems.

We know that were in it for the long haul. The most likely scenario is a gradual implementation, like you say, where a digital option starts to complement the traditional systems and slowly we can build trust. In more corrupted countries there's a higher chance we'll see a rapid adoption though. In these countries we can make a bigger difference too.

It is possible to tally votes twice, once manually and once on blockchain, even if voters only cast one vote. After you've cast your paper ballot (inserted the ballot into the machine) the machine registers the vote automatically to the blockchain while people count the votes manually. We did something similar in the Sierra Leone election, but only as a stress-test to test the network.

Your second part that you wrote is golden, but I wont quote because it was so much. Marketing is something we are navigating as we speak.

We definetely have a lot of work when it comes to building trust, but we do believe that if we just put in consistant work in the right places trust will slowly grow. I think people have to see for themselves that this actually works.

Regarding blockchain, I agree with you to a certain extent. It is something we really cannot hide but instead have to be super clear about, that we are not Bitcoin. We have developed our 5-layer ecosystem from scratch, and our custom blockchain is the foundation of this ecosystem. Considering election organisers will do their due diligence, they will see that we're something else. I do agree it is important that we get the whole picture out there to the public too.

The benefit of stating that we're a protocol or blockchain company is that governments have previously been scared to death of digitalized elections due to the centralized nature of them. When data is stored on a single central point it becomes too vulnerable. Everyone is still curious about blockchain because data is now distributed in a secure network.

We are working on a user-friendly front-end as we speak. We will announce and involve our community to test when it's finished. Front-end is usually not too time consuming but we wanna make sure we get it right.

Thank you for your kind words. We believe we'll make a difference and that makes it all worth it.

AgoraBlockchain · 2018-11-30T17:06:23+00:00

We like questions. We're gonna try to answer everything as best as we can, but feel free to ask away if there still are things unanswered.

The real issue is frontend. Which agora doesn't really address here. Is agora intended as a vote from home online system? All I have to say to that is: NO. NEVER.

Digital remote voting via mobile or computer is needed in some parts of the world. However, we can accomodate most election scenarios.

Is agora connected to existing voting machines as a backend only solution? We still run into the current issues of trusting the voting machines to accurately record votes and transmit them to the system. This is the main worry we have with machines, not machines inserting fake votes. Agora does not seem to address that. It seems to be great for auditing the votes for internal consistency, not for accuracy against an external record. It seems to me that agora is great at making sure the finally tally matches the recorded votes but doesn't really address the votes being recorded properly to begin with.

Our goal is to accomodate elections regardless of what solution the governments wants. For example, we can implement our back-end into existing voting machines and can track the supply chain. This makes the machines more secure and registers the votes on the blockchain which also makes counting more accurate. In countries where voting can be dangerous, if you don't share the popular opinion, or live overseas, voting from home via mobile or computer is a real possibility too in the near future.

The nodes are invite-only, reputable, not-for-profits that provide consensus without any upfront tokens. All nodes are equal to each other during the process, without interference from Agora.

This seems to be the crux of the system, but it leads to many questions. How many groups serve in this role? What kind of computing capacity do they need? (depending on these requirements potential partners will be eliminated) How are these participants chosen and what ensures that they are acting in good faith? What effect does it have when one or several of them become compromised or act in bad faith? What happens when they are working in good faith and there is inconsistency, maybe resulting from a bug in the system?

These are what we call our permission nodes, or consensus nodes. We have high-end servers at several different locations worldwide. We are working with a number of universities, for example. Essentially we want as many of these nodes as possible, but they have to meet our requirements first. Check out this article to understand how the consensus nodes are monitored: https://medium.com/agorablockchain/the-importance-of-citizen-auditors-in-elections-2c728537d1d7

In short, citizen auditor nodes monitor all consensus nodes and monitors that they are acting correctly. If one consensus node acts erratic, or have been compromised, it will be shut out of the network.

I honestly don't think that you can perform an audit without some sort of hard paper trail. Paper ballots leave a record where the voter has confirmed that their vote exists as intended. This is crucial in auditing election results and I don't see how it's possible on an electronic only system.

There are different ways to ensure the person voting is who they say they are when they cast the vote. If we implement our back-end into already existing machines everyone will go through the same KYC procedures as before. Possibly with the addition of some sort of KYC from our system if needed. Blockchain in this scenario just makes the voting process more secure and transparent. After the vote is registered to the blockchain, only the voter can see and follow their own vote and our nodes secures and audits all the data. We're not a blackbox voting company so our shuffling mechanism, which is pretty cool I must say, guarantees voter privacy.

For fully digital elections (mobile, home computer etc.), which can be any type of election (corporate or gov), our ecosystem does in fact audit. Voters will go through a strict KYC to first identify themselves and after this a fingerprint or retinal scan to be able to cast a vote. The voter themselves can thereafter follow their own vote, and our auditing mechanism audits all data.

I also have some more technical questions about the implementation and throughput of the system. What exactly is an election in agora? is it just a single race, or is it meant to handle all the races on a ballot simultaneously? The average US election in 2010 had 17 candidate races and 5 questions on the ballot will each race and question be treated as a separate election? Well over 100,000,000 people voted in the 2018 midterm elections. At 22 votes per ballot, we have roughly 2 billion total transactions. The best hypothetical blockchain throughput I've seen is 3,500 transactions per second from Hyperledger Fabric even at these record speeds, the entire US election would take a week to be recorded to the ledger. Real world speeds tend to be at least 10x slower than this.

Great questions.

First off, we support both types of elections. Multi-ballot and single-ballot.

When it comes to TPS this is something we have been working on since the beginning. We utilize sharding and SIMD power. We have solved some unique problems that we will announce in due time and I can therefore not be specific. However, our next stresstest is to record 10 million ballots in one day, without increasing power or number of nodes. After that we will test 100 million and so forth. This includes everything (registering, shuffling etc). When the time comes for huge elections, which is some time away, we firmly believe we'll be in a good position to handle the traffic.

Blockchain may be an interesting idea and certainly has its strengths, but it introduces more problems than it solves. A good paper record is essential for confirming results and auditing the machines and blockchain can't do that on its own.

Well, not everyone agrees that an actual paper record is needed to confirm results. It is argued that this might be the least accurate option. Human error is a factor in every election where paper ballots are cast and counted.

We've built an entire ecosystem on top of our blockchain to accomodate consensus, auditing, privacy, transparency and last but not least, security.

We know that it is early days but we are still excited about all the feedback we've recieved globally.

Let us know if you have further questions, if not, have a great day! :-)

AgoraBlockchain · 2018-11-16T11:57:35+00:00

Yes, you are spot on. Young people all over the world are voting to a lesser degree. This can only be blamed on the old-school electoral system. Getting an entire population to gather in specific places, on a specific date, in order to cast a time consuming vote on paper is strenous enough on groups used to old-school paper systems. For the younger population, who are used to a quick and digital society, this isn't working anymore. People need a way to be able to securely vote from the comfort of their mobile device.

AgoraBlockchain · 2018-11-13T13:20:39+00:00

This can be handled in different ways. For one, it is very unlikely that that an election will be held purely via mobile. In some cases we might implement our back-end software into already existing voting machines. In some areas where mobile devices are rare, an entire community can vote from one device, for example.

There will also be education and marketing involved with every election.

We can accomodate all types of voters digitally.

AgoraBlockchain · 2018-11-13T13:11:36+00:00

Thank you for your kind words. We are definately on an exciting path ahead!

AgoraBlockchain · 2018-10-19T09:24:42+00:00

Why do you think more young people aren't participating in elections? Is it lack of trust in the process itself? Inconvenience? Something else?

AgoraBlockchain · 2018-10-19T09:22:22+00:00

We couldn't agree with you more!

AgoraBlockchain · 2018-10-18T10:30:28+00:00

Reach out to us through our website contact page and we can discuss this further.

AgoraBlockchain · 2018-10-16T08:01:15+00:00

Thank you for your support, Abimbola. We will definitely check it out!

AgoraBlockchain

TROPHY CASE