Moscow Extending Its Use of A Blockchain-based Voting Platform To The City Block Level

Earlier today, reports stated that the municipal government of Russia’s national capital has launched Digital Home, a service that allows neighbors in high rises to electronically vote and communicate on issues like whether to replace the building entrance door or hire a new management company, and this service makes use Active Citizen, an electronic voting platform that runs on a private version of Ethereum.

According to a press release issued this Wednesday, Moscow residents hold five thousand to seven thousand face-to-face meetings on such matters each year.

“We believe it’s essential to build a convenient environment to allow neighbors to influence the neighborhood they are living in,” said Andrey Belozerov, an advisor to the chief information officer of Moscow. “The pace of life in [big cities] imposes its conditions and it is rather difficult to find a suitable time for everyone and schedule a meeting between neighbors offline.”

The service, Active Citizen which was launched in 2014 has more than 2 million users according to reports and has facilitated 3,510 polls where users voted on subjects like the name for a new metro train and the color of seats in a new sports arena.

“Once the vote is placed, it will be listed in a ledger consisting of all votes [that have] taken place across a peer-to-peer network,” according to the city’s public statement. “It will guarantee that the data will not be lost or altered by someone after the vote was cast so there is no chance for fraud or third-party interference.”