Blockchain now being used to vote in annual general meetings

ACCESS has become the world’s first association to officially implement a blockchain technology solution for on-premise voting. The technology aims to increase transparency in the voting process, protect member anonymity in vote casting and prevent double voting.

The blockchain voting solution was developed by ACCESS member JEDTrade, an enterprise blockchain technology solutions provider. ACCESS is a non-profit organisation for the cryptocurrency and blockchain industry in Singapore.

The blockchain voting was based on the following process:

1.Members place their votes for future appointment holders and agenda items on a blockchain, using the advantages of blockchain technology such as immutability, transparency and traceability

2.Anonymity is established through the disconnection between members and their vote, so a vote cannot be traced back to its originator

3.A list of voting codes are randomly generated, hashed and stored in a Code Management Smart Contract, before physical copies are printed as a QR code and randomly distributed to members upon registration at the AGM.

4.Each code status is tracked in the Code Management Smart Contract to ensure voters are only permitted to submit one vote, preventing double voting. The Voting Smart Contract is used to initiate and track votes. It will contain the positions, candidates running under each position and the number of seats available for each position.

Voters can then send their votes via generic machines (with a fixed blockchain address) to the Voting Smart Contract. The ability to track the hashed codes on the blockchain helps improve the efficiency in verifying authentic votes based on the voting rights assigned, reducing voting errors and fraud.

Anson Zeall, Chairman of ACCESS, said: “We are seeing the future of corporate governance through the implementation of blockchain technology starting with our most important corporate governance event, our AGM.”