Japan sees LayerX and xID Develop A Blockchain-Based Voting System

Layer X, a blockchain firm based in Japan, has made a partnership with xID, a digital identity application, in order to develop a voting system based on blockchain, doing so in Kaga, the Japanese city.

Trying To Improve Existing Systems

The announcement itself came from LayerX on Thursday, where the firm, based in Tokyo, explained that it would start developing an electronic voting project. This project is done in order to try and promote secure, safe elections for Kaga, which boasts around 68,000 people living in it. According to LayerX, the prime driver for this new project is the need to address the stability and cost of the region’s current electronic voting system, which doesn’t paint a good picture for the current one.

In the company’s announcement, LayerX detailed the myriad of challenges when it comes to voting over the Internet. Some of these hurdles are the technical hoops you need to jump through to keep the ballots secret, double voting prevention, as well as the voting devices themselves holding considerable costs.

According to LayerX’s announcement, the firm had already developed and researched an electronic voting protocol, one it claims balances the confidentiality of voting records and the voting process’ transparency.

Adding The Strengths Of xID To LayerX Voting System

As the firm explained, with the xID application, the company will be able to strengthen the existing voting system it has even further. This will be done thanks to a voter’s identity now being verified, which will allow every person to gain exactly one ballot and one ballot alone.

It’s stated that the system LayerX is putting forward will even allow voters to check their respective voting results. Another key feature is the ability to independently verify the aggregation and recording processes for each individual vote and whether or not they were performed in the correct way within the blockchain network in question.

Kaga’s officials were the first in Japan to declare its city a “Blockchain City.” As the reports go, the initiative itself was developed to try and counteract the rural area population decline within the country through the encouragement of innovative technology usage in both the public and private sectors. It should also be noted that LayerX had made a similar announcement back in November, as well. This announcement was regarding the firm joining up with the “smart city” initiative of Tsukuba City.

An Ever Changing World

It seems Japan is trying to revolutionize its infrastructure with blockchain technology, as are many other nations. Time will tell how successful this will be, but the blockchain arms race is in full swing. Whether it’s the use of the blockchain technology itself, or the CBDC potential, almost every major nation is considering its use in some aspect or another.