No, a Blockchain Wouldn’t Have Prevented the Iowa Caucus Debacle

Adam B. Levine is CoinDesk’s podcast editor. The views expressed are his personal. 

We would be the primary to inform you: No, a blockchain would not have prevented the voting debacle in Iowa.

The query is inevitable, if at this level cringe-inducing. Inevitable as a result of the issues that delayed the outcomes of Monday’s Democratic presidential caucus are, conceptually, among the similar ones that blockchains (and distributed ledger know-how broadly) search to resolve: a scarcity of transparency, centralization and inefficiency. Cringe-inducing as a result of blockchain’s report with political elections has been iffy at finest.

As of early Tuesday afternoon, the voting outcomes, usually revealed after the caucus that night time, have been nonetheless unknown. The state occasion says the delay is important because it performs “high quality management” and verifies digitally reported outcomes towards the underlying paper path. 

This yr held some notable adjustments for the notoriously handbook and extremely decentralized caucusing course of, with the introduction of an app for particular person native gatherings to report their outcomes again to the Iowa Democratic Occasion.  Historically, this was achieved with a telephone name; whereas that course of has its flaws, this yr’s outcomes make them appear nearly enviable.

From all appearances, it’s this new results-reporting app that’s on the core of as we speak’s chaos.  

The Wall Road Journal reported:

The presidential candidates, with their jammed schedules, appeared into that void and principally all declared victory in a technique or one other.  The lack of know-how created a possibility for mass chaos that might imperil Iowa’s early, hallowed place within the political panorama.  

It’s not that outcomes weren’t recognized, they only weren’t recognized wherever in addition to the native precinct degree.

One might be forgiven, then, for asking whether or not and the way blockchain may need helped right here, for the reason that know-how is commonly touted as a means so as to add transparency and to automate paper trails. 

In principle, had the reporting app used a blockchain to report the information, all reported outcomes would have been clear and equally obtainable for everybody to see, from the campaigns to the media to the politicos who absorb every bit of knowledge they’ll. 

After all, if any outcomes are improper and even simply incorrect, these numbers would not less than initially seem legitimate as a result of they’re “on the blockchain,” and any adjustments to them later would possible draw cries of foul play from candidates dropping delegates due to corrections. 

Actually, although, the query is much less about blockchains and extra in regards to the app getting used. Whereas there are various issues with the quirky Iowa Caucus method to political choice making, it’s definitely a decentralized course of with only a few central factors of failure… till you introduce a compulsory reporting app!  

At that time, all that decentralization continues to be there for the decision-making course of on the native degree, however in relation to reporting outcomes for tabulation it’s only one app, with principally only one codebase that shares a typical set of bugs.  

If a precinct captain has a coronary heart assault, there’s a second and a 3rd and principally as many as you want who can step up and fill that position to get the job achieved.  However when the app fails? None of that issues, the app broke so the election broke.

Blockchains received’t change that. In reality, they may and really possible would make it worse as blockchains add significant complexity, which implies extra methods issues might go flawed underneath imperfect, real-life circumstances.   

The app’s failure on this case was compounded by what seems to be a late rollout of the brand new tech-based method, inadequate coaching for the employees who’d have to make use of it throughout this vital occasion and restricted or no observe simply to see if it might work in actual life.

Whereas many in our trade wish to declare now we have an answer, think about if a blockchain-enabled voting app had been deployed with as little testing and coaching.  All of those issues occurred in a conventional app surroundings and with out the necessity to make a thousand retired precinct captains write down a 24-word seed phrase.  

Even when your know-how is foolproof (and once more, that’s removed from apparent with blockchain voting apps), when it is available in contact with the fabled early majority and past the issues usually are not technical in nature. They’ve far more to do with the very human processes we every use in our heads and which we’ve educated all our lives to seek out acquainted and cozy.  Ask your grandma to jot down down 24 in any other case meaningless phrases and by no means lose them and also you’ll possible simply get her upset.  

Maybe the one invaluable contribution “blockchain” could make to this case is by educating folks to view the world via a special lens, to query concentrations of energy and asymmetries of knowledge, to fastidiously weigh the professionals and cons of established methods of doing issues. 

Blockchain, in different phrases, asks the best questions. However on this case, it’s not the reply.