Security News > 2020 > February > RSAC 2020: Blockchain is ‘Garbage In’, Voting Needs Paper Ballots

During the event's annual Cryptographer's Panel, industry leaders broke down their top crypto-concerns, including privacy regulations, election security and blockchain.

"Any legislation that requires people to undo past actions is contrary to the technology. In most cases, blockchain is overhyped and there are simpler ways to achieve the same goal. Most of these use cases have been proposed for blockchain are nonsense."

One of those privacy use cases that some are considering for blockchain is ensuring voting anonymity.

"It's like trying to use a combination lock to put out a kitchen fire. Voting has requirements that are stronger than other use cases - you need anonymous ballots, which makes it tough to do audits. We've learned that we need software independence in the form of paper ballots. Otherwise you trust the results if you trust the software, which is a dangerous path to go down. As for anonymity, blockchain in my view is garbage in, garbage stored for ever."

Rabin finished the conversation with a look into her crystal ball and noted that blockchain could very well represent a different role in the future - just perhaps not for privacy applications.

News URL

https://threatpost.com/rsac-2020-blockchain-is-garbage-in-voting-needs-paper-ballots/153221/