West Virginia's Latest Experiment: Blockchain Elections
The 2016 presidential election brought to light just how archaic and vulnerable America’s voting system is, raising questions of how to protect democracy from foreign influences and digital hacks in the future.
Venture capitalist Bradley Tusk thinks blockchain could be the answer.
“Long term, I believe that every American should be able to vote in any election on their phone,” the founder and CEO of Tusk Montgomery Philanthropies told Cheddar Thursday.
Through his foundation, Tusk currently funds America’s first blockchain-powered voting experiment in West Virginia.
In March, the state launched a secure app to enable deployed military voters from a few counties to vote from wherever they are.
“We already have a handful of votes from various locations,” said Mac Warner, West Virginia’s Secretary of State.
“I was in the military and I’ve had those experiences where it’s difficult to vote. Think of the soldier on the hillside in Afghanistan...When they have those few minutes to think about an election back home, they want to vote the same way they order something from Amazon.”
Following this pilot program, the state wants to expand the program ahead of the midterm elections in November.
Tusk says the technology, which is already upending a range of industries from banking to art, provides a safer alternative to the current system.
“Blockchain...really is a much, much, much safer way to conduct elections not only compared to just regular online mobile voting, if someone were to try that, but even compared to the systems we have right now,” said Tusk.
For a military member to vote, the app not only requires details from their government-issued ID cards, but also uses [facial recognition and fingerprint scans](https://cheddar.com/videos/how-does-blockchain-powered-voting-work) to verify a voter’s identity.
“I’m very secure in the integrity of this election process,” sayd Warner.
Tusk, who managed former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s campaign, believes that low voter turnout leads to increased polarization among candidates and that this technology, though nascent, could in the long-term drastically change that.
“If, all of a sudden, voting was as easy as pulling out your phone and turnout went from 12 percent to 60 percent, then those same politicians would be forced to represent the views of the mainstream.
“To me, that’s the value in doing this. Right now, we don’t have a true represent of democracy,” said Tusk.
The saga surrounding Elon Musk's bid to buy Twitter has made its way to Washington, DC. A group of 18 House Republicans are calling on the social media platform's board to preserve all records and documents related to the company's response to the offer from the Tesla CEO. Caleb Silver, editor in chief of Investopedia, joined Closing Bell to discuss. "This is a long term play, but it's just a shot across the bow by congressional Republicans, who probably will end up taking the House, that they're going to be tough on Big Tech and they're going use Musk's bid for twitter to take it private, so that he can get the platform to be open source and remove its censorship."
Removing carbon from our atmosphere has become a goal for scientists and entrepreneurs around the world, and while many have begun to develop promising technology solutions, a few big names in tech, including Stripe, Alphabet, Shopify, Meta and McKinsey, are committing nearly $1 billion dollars to fund carbon removal technology through 2030 through a new initiative called Frontier, an advanced market commitment to incentive following through on development. Hannah Bebbington, the head of strategy for Frontier, joined Cheddar News to discuss. "What Frontier aims to do is help get this market on track by sending that strong demand signal such that we can scale up capacity really significantly in the next couple of years," she said.
Jonah Goldman, the managing director at Bill Gates-founded Breakthrough Energy, joined Cheddar News to talk about the promising growth in the climate change-conscious investments the organization has made over the years. ”I mean when we're looking at some of the hard to abate technologies and cement and steel and aviation fuel, all of those have promising pathways that weren't there again just a few years ago," he said. "We invest across all of the technology areas that are driving emissions, greenhouse gas emissions and there really are exciting products and technologies coming out in almost every one of those sectors.”
Cheddar's J.D. Durkin caught up with the head of NASA Bill Nelson, a former senator, who feels one thing that seems less rancorous on Capitol Hill these days is the work of the space agency.
As the newly formed Amazon Labor Union gets ready to come to terms with the e-commerce giant, the issue of workplace safety and pace-of-work issues remains contentious and complex. Cheddar's Alex Vuocolo reports.
As musical numbers keep springing up on TikTok Cheddar's Michelle Castillo talks to the cast and crew behind "For You, Paige," the platform's first-ever commissioned musical play.
Catching you up on what you need to know on April 22, 2022, with updates on a new Ukraine aid package, a new missile test by Russia, DOJ announcement of $150 Million in COVID-related fraud, the Florida senate supports Gov. DeSantis in stripping Disney of its special tax district, and more.
