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Russian opposition expresses dissent towards blockchain vote
In the wake of Vladimir Putin’s landslide victory in the recent Russian presidential election, which many have labeled as preordained and lacking legitimacy, exiled opposition leader Mark Feygin is leading an initiative to allow Russians to anonymously record a “protest vote” against Putin using blockchain technology.
The referendum organized by Feygin, the locally wanted mandespite having no legal authority Russia, aims to strengthen efforts to challenge Putin’s presidency and provide Russians with a means to express dissent in a country where the consequences of opposition can be severe. This is especially pertinent following the recent death of opposition leader Alexei Navalny while he was imprisoned in an Arctic penal colony.
Voting will be conducted using the Russia2024 app, powered by Rarimo’s Freedom Tool, which uses the Arbitrum blockchain and zero-knowledge cryptography to ensure voters’ identities remain untraceable. Only Russian passport holders, estimated at approximately 34.6 millionwill be entitled to participate.
To cast their vote, users will need to download the Russia2024 app and verify their citizenship by scanning their passports, which contain a biometric chip used to confirm the voter’s identity and facilitate anonymous voting. Supporters of the app are confident in the security of the voting process and believe voters need not fear repercussions.
Voting in the shadow of the war in Ukraine
Freedom Tool co-founder Lasha Antadze, who holds Ukrainian and Georgian passports and has previously worked with the Ukrainian government on the digitalization of state property privatization, emphasized the decentralized nature of the voting system, saying it is designed to withstand attacks , blocking or deleting.
Although the Russia2024 app was initially removed from the Apple app store, it is expected to be reinstated and is currently available on the Google app store.
The referendum comes at a time when Putin’s victory is expected to provide him with the means to continue Russia’s war against Ukraine. Antadze stressed that the technology behind the app is open source and has received contributions from anonymous cryptography professors in Russia, describing it as a form of “wartime defense technology.”
Beyond the Russian context, Antadze believes this technology has the potential to ensure authenticity and significantly reduce the cost of election-related voting exercises in other nations as well:
We are distributing open source technology to everyone. It’s not just Ukrainians or Georgians who build. […] We received many contributions via anonymous letters from Russian cryptography professors. It is a kind of wartime defense technology.
The report follows a late 2023 investigation suggesting cryptocurrency exchange FTX was hacked they may have ties to Russia.