Congratulations to team WYVote2021 & Beyond for winning the WyoHackathon 2020 Blockchain Voting Challenge! Team WYVote2021 & Beyond won the event by creating a working prototype using the SIMBA Chain Platform! The team put themselves in the Wyoming voters’ place by creating three realistic actors and designed a solution that would address their challenges and build trust with the new voting system using blockchain technologies. The team took home one bitcoin as their prize.  Read more about team #WYVote2021 & Beyond’s solution here. You can also watch their presentation below:

What WYVote2021 & Beyond’s Proof of Concept Does

• Election officials create a smart contract for a tokenized election ballot.
• The Election Official (smart contract owner) adds candidates to the election ballot
• The Election Official (smart contract owner) adds authorized voters so they can vote on the election ballot
• Voters register with a wallet so that they can cast a secure and private vote
• Voters then cast their vote for a selected candidate
• Voters get a confirmed transaction ID that is a unique hash on the blockchain, confirming their vote was cast
• Voters can also sign up for SMS or email notification to confirm their vote
• Election officials can view vote tally by a candidate or by overall ballot
• Election officials can end the election ballot, locking it from further transactions

More about the WyoHackathon 2020 Blockchain Voting Challenge

This year’s November election is set to be the most complex landscape voters have ever experienced. For the first time, most voters will be opting to use absentee mail-in ballots, something they have likely never done before. In 2020, somehow democracy is still reliant on paper to determine who will lead our country, despite five states already having had successful pilot projects in blockchain voting for absentee ballots.

The challenge wanted to see something different for 2021, 2022, and into our digital future. The Brock Pierce Foundation had a prize of 1 bitcoin for the WyoHackathon team that built the best solution for a blockchain voting app that incorporates voter identification and ballot tabulation. Special consideration was made for tailored solutions that can be used in Wyoming elections, specifically with the view to make Wyoming the next state to have a blockchain voting pilot that shows the rest of the country what innovation can do to support democracy.

Learn more about the WyoHackathon here.