The Associated Press had promised to incorporate the nascent blockchain technology in the U.S. presidential elections in 2020 and the news medium kept its promise. The results of the polls were logged by the AP on a blockchain platform. Everipedia, the blockchain encyclopedia service confirmed on Saturday that their platform was used for posting the recent election results on the blockchain, the Everipedia OraQle. This would make Joe Biden the 46th President of the United States, to be the first leader whose win was confirmed on the blockchain. One of the most trusted news sources in the world, the Associated Press has calculated and reported the vote counts since 1984.
The company played an important role in last week’s elections and was one of the news sources that had opted to take a more conservative approach when it came to logging votes. Last month, the news medium had confirmed that they would be partnering with Everipedia, which would help them in projecting the election results to Everipedia’s blockchain. At the time, Decrypt had explained that the results would be displayed by Everipedia in real-time with some assistance from blockchain project Chainlink and using its blockchain infrastructure, which is ESO-enabled.
The Associated Press’ Director of Data Licensing, Dwayne Desaulniers informed Decrypt that the initiative helps them in highlighting the trail for vote counting and declaration of election winners. He also said that blockchain would be helpful in improving trust and transparency in the electoral process and their ability of correctly casting votes. An Everipedia representative explained that the process would involve the Associated Press signing its cryptographic keys to the company’s data oracle powered by Chainlink. With the oracle, they would directly connect the election results to the blockchain. The company’s representative had said that all industry-leading organizations were offered the ‘oracle-as-a-service’ platform for publishing data feeds on the platform directly.
He also stated that the platform could come in handy for publishing and data companies by helping enhance their operations. Even though a lot of news sources jumped the gun when calling the votes for the two candidates, the AP had showed journalistic integrity and remained patient till the last vote was counted. Eventually, the news source declared the Democratic candidate Joe Biden as the winner, after he won the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and crossed the threshold of 270 electoral votes needed for winning the presidency.
The use of blockchain technology in this election is certainly a good thing, given how well it turned out. However, bearing in mind its potential, there is no denying that it can make a big difference in the electoral process. Blockchain voting is already gaining popularity, with countries like Russia and South Korea doing their part in testing the technology. It could also be quite useful in the United States, especially as the country is now dealing with accusations of voter fraud. Incumbent Donald Trump is refusing to accept defeat after his crushing loss and has alleged voter fraud in multiple states.
