Thailand Holds World’s First Ever Blockchain Primaries

The Democrat Party in Thailand, that is the main opposition party in the nation, has become the first political party to hold a major election on the Blockchain entirely.

Two Voting Options Available

Through the use of a live e-voting system supported by Zcoin Blockchain, the Democrat Party was able to successfully conduct its primaries. Over a hundred and twenty thousand people took part in the process which was held from the first of November through to the ninth.

The primary was also the first time a political party in the country involved the general public in selecting its leader ahead of the planned general elections. The planned general elections will be the first time Thailand is holding one since the coup that took place in 2014.

Thailand has been experiencing many firsts in the last month. Prior to this feat, a rap group founded in the country that released a song going by the name ‘Rap Against Dictatorship’ saw their song become the first political resistance music to be stored on the Blockchain.

The move was completed by an unknown user after the government threatened to censor the song. A copy of the song was saved on the Zcoin Blockchain which is base on the Zcoin protocol through the use of the IPFS.

The Democrat Party in Thailand has gone a step further and has used the IPFS concept and has used it to completely change the way elections are conducted, in a way that also fully reassures the integrity of the process.

The process made it possible for voters to engage in the activity by either choosing the app, which only requires a submission of a photo ID, or the physical voting in which a voter would go to the voting stations functioning on the Raspberry Pi system.

Milestones Achieved Through Blockchain

Through the IPFS system, encrypted data pockets were then stored which contained identification documents and voting tallies. The stored data was then transferred to the Zcoin Blockchain where their ability to be audited has been guaranteed to the party conducting the primaries as well as the Thai Election Commission.

When commenting about the elections the main developer who is also the founder of Zcoin, Poramin Insom, said that he was proud of the fact that Zcoin was able to play a part in the world’s first large-scale e-vote that promoted greater voter participation as well as assured the transparency of the process. He added that he hoped to not only encourage other political parties but also other governments in the region with the milestone that was just achieved.

While at a previous time the election of the party leader, who would, later on, become the presidential candidate for the party, was decided by a select few members of the political party. Through Blockchain technology the larger voting population was able to take part in the process.

Winner Declared In The Primaries

Abhisit Vejjajiva, the former prime minister triumphed against his closest rival Warong Dechgitvigrom in the tightly contested primary.