A system of blockchain remote voting is developed at St Petersburg University

Many large companies – partners of St Petersburg University – work to some extent remotely. The CryptoVeche application is a response to employers’ requests. How to vote on the project development if half of the employees are in other cities or even abroad? How can the board of directors make a strategic decision and vote in absentia? Voting in social networks is not a solution, since their results are not legally binding and the voting data cannot be protected.

CryptoVeche can be used in all areas of activity that require a reliable and secure electronic voting system. The platform works both on mobile devices and as a web application for desktop computers and laptops. Using this system, voters are not obliged to be in the same office since CryptoVeche enables making collective decisions remotely.

The application allows eligible voters to register using smart contracts, ensures automatic vote counting, and guarantees confidentiality and security throughout the entire voting cycle.

The vote results cannot be rigged – even if you have the will, the technical capacity, and the access to the database.

Timofei Utnasin, project leader of the Distributed Ledger Technologies Centre at St Petersburg University

Due to the fact that this voting system is based on blockchain technology, it is invulnerable against external and internal attacks from voters. It does not allow voting multiple times. Encryption and anonymisation algorithms guarantee the confidentiality of a person’s vote. Furthermore, voters can assure themselves that their vote has been counted correctly, while the system allows monitoring the voting process through the participation of external observers.

According to Timofei Utnasin, the beta version of the system has already been tested in 10 Russian companies. Currently, the developers are testing the application capacity for large-scale voting – designed for more than a thousand voters.

CryptoVeche is primarily intended for corporate users. For national elections and referenda, another electronic voting system – ELORIS was presented by the Centre last year. It was successfully tested in a single voting day at 57 polling stations in the Kirishsky municipal district and the Sosnovoborsky town district of the Leningrad region. The Central Election Commission of the Republic of Moldova has expressed interest in the system.

The Distributed Ledger Technologies Centre at St Petersburg University is a structural subdivision of St Petersburg University, founded in 2018 within the framework of the National Technology Initiative state programme with the support of RVC JSC. The Centre’s key areas of work are: design and development of the distributed ledger ecosystem based on scientific knowledge and practical application of distributed ledger technologies. You can contact the Centre’s specialists by e-mail.