[Sourc] 2023.02.17 16:58 Hankyung IT.Science article
Hyunok Oh, CEO of zkypto, "Blockchain voting will change future politics"
[Original article] https://www.hankyung.com/it/article/202302174478g
Interview with Hyunok Oh, CEO of Zkrypto
Development of 'zKVoting', a voting app using zero-knowledge proof technology
"Blockchain-based voting solves conflicts that occur every election"
Closer to direct democracy... "Reduced Voting Cost and Time Significantly"
Hyunok Oh, CEO of Zkrypto (right), and Ji-hye kim, chief technology director (left), are explaining the blockchain online voting app 'zkVoting'. / Photo = Jo Yeon-woo Blooming Beat reporter
"I think there are many people in our society who want to express their opinions actively and in real time. If a blockchain-based voting platform is commercialized, a new political form that reflects public opinion in real time may emerge."
Hyunok Oh, CEO of Zkrypto, said in an interview with Blooming Beat on the 17th, "If we can drastically reduce the cost and time spent on voting, we will be able to vote more frequently and realize 'real-time democracy'."
Zkrypto is a developer of 'zKVoting', a public blockchain-based online voting app that uses ZKP (Zero Knowledge Proof) technology.
zKVoting became a hot topic by winning the Best Innovation Award at CES 2023, the world's largest information technology (IT) and home appliance exhibition held last month. On the opening day of CES 2023, the Consumer Technology Association (CTA) of America paid attention to zKVoting as 'three technologies to solve problems facing mankind'.
"Blockchain-based voting solves conflicts that occur every election"
Regarding the background of the birth of zkVoting, CEO Oh said, "Zero-knowledge proof is a key technology that provides privacy protection and scalability." "If this technology is combined with a public blockchain and used for voting, conflicts and I thought it could solve distrust and social confusion," he explained.
Zero-knowledge proof is a technology that proves it without disclosing the information it has to the transaction target. It is attracting attention as a technology that can solve the problem of personal information infringement by proving that you are the owner without revealing your identity.
Representative Oh applied the technology to 'voting', where confidentiality is an iron rule, to perfectly protect information such as the identity of voters and voting contents, and to prevent vote manipulation at the same time. There is no content about voting, but it is a method that leaves only valid evidence, such as whether legitimate voters participated in the vote.
CEO Oh said, "The fact that outside hacking is not possible does not guarantee the safety of the voting system. Zero-knowledge proofs even prove that the ballot counting process was done correctly, so even insiders cannot manipulate it."
The difference between zkVoting and governance voting of decentralized coordination organizations (DAO) is 'anonymity'. DAO is an organization that is operated based on blockchain, and rules are mainly established and implemented through voting by participants. However, in that all information is disclosed, it is contrary to secret elections, one of the four principles of elections.
Previously, in the decentralized finance (DeFi DeFi) platform Uniswap community, a controversy arose that venture capitalist Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) exercised large-scale voting rights to influence governance in a vote on the 'BNB chain expansion' agenda. there is a bar
Representative Oh said, "Voting on the Dao is in fact an open vote," adding, "To prevent my will from being broken by external coercion, a secret vote is necessary."
Closer to direct democracy... "Reduced Voting Cost and Time Significantly"
Representative Oh predicted that if the blockchain-based voting system is commercialized, the cost and time involved in voting will be drastically reduced, which will change the form of politics in the future.
"It was difficult for citizens to express their opinions to the members of the National Assembly because they are elected once every four years," he said. that," he said.
Representative Oh cited the Podemos Party in Spain, which was founded in 2014, as an example.
Podemos pursued direct democracy and introduced blockchain-based voting ‘Agora Voting’ for this purpose. In that the party is decided by online voting, it gained support from young people and emerged as one of the three major parties within a year of its founding.
CEO Oh said, "In online voting, voters can use smart devices to vote regardless of location and time. In addition, blockchain-based voting has the advantage of preventing distortion of voting by applying a consensus algorithm. added,” he explained.
In addition, he expressed his anticipation, saying, "Through the blockchain-based voting system, a new type of member of the National Assembly that reflects the opinions of the entire people in real time may emerge in addition to the current political form of district and proportional representation."
Bloomingbit reporter Cho Yeon-woo told_u_so@bloomingbit.io