Problems, construction principles and development prospects of the national electronic voting system in Ukraine

Abstract

The present paper considers national electronic voting system problems in Ukraine, principles of construction and development prospects. Electronic voting refers to a way to exercise will, in which the voting, counting, and publication of the results processes are carried out by electronic means and systems. Most existing voting systems are built on centralized principles and this allows providing certain advantages, for example, high controllability of the system, its reliability, and autonomy. However, hierarchical systems also have significant drawbacks, in particular, single decision center and centralized storage leads to vulnerability to cyberattacks on them. Also it should be noted, that in centralized systems due to the abuse of administrative resources distortions of the results of expression of will are possible. This is the biggest threat to the modern democratic information society. Research, development, and implementation of new technologies of electronic voting, which would make it impossible to intervene and distort the results of the will through decentralization while maintaining all the system qualities for safety and reliability are promising. This article proposes particular proposals for architecture substantiating as well as a basic model and interaction protocols of a decentralized electronic blockchain voting system. A two-level blockchain voting architecture is proposed, researched and verified through physical prototyping. Its implementation will increase confidence in information resources and services (which is especially important for government agencies) will reduce time and overhead costs; make it impossible for centralized institutions to intervene and possible corrupt practices; will increase the reliability of information storage and the quality of services provided.