• The Stellar blockchain based online voting platform “StimUp” was awarded by the city of Munich.
• The start-up behind the app will discuss the next steps with the German city of Munich how the solution can be used.

In the second round of the innovation competition “Apps4Muc” of the city of Munich the Stellar blockchain-based online voting platform “StimUp” was awarded. The app is being developed by a German start-up and is designed to help people to conduct votes securely even in times of COVID-19 and the associated limited on-site events.

As one of the inventors, Erich Holzinger, explained in a contribution for the city of Munich, the app is intended to be used “from the election of an association board to project approval in the public sector or in companies”. For those purposes, the app offers a secure and simple way to vote and make decisions online.

The solution is free of charge for up to 1,000 voters per election to “contribute to free and secure elections in all countries”. The technical basis for the online voting platform is the Stellar blockchain to store document hashes and each individual vote.

A unique token is created for each election, which makes it possible to easily view all election events. It should be possible to set up an election in three simple steps. Once the election is set up, all participants receive a personal link and can use it to authenticate themselves for the election. Each voter can then cast a vote once.

Thanks to the blockchain technology, it is possible for everyone to check anonymously which votes have been cast. Voters can also use their own voting ID to check whether their vote has been correctly recorded in the blockchain. A subsequent manipulation of the vote should be impossible. The entire voting result can be called up at any time after the end of the election by means of a link.

To solve the inherent problem of user authentication during voting, the development team is focusing on a group of known voters. As one Reddit user described, the Stellar Development Foundation (SDF) recently experienced “a hell of a time with people using fake accounts/phone numbers etc. to vote up their projects for more prize money at https://communityfund.stellar.org/”. A team member explained about this issue:

Good question. We focus on elections with a known voter group. So we have a different setup as SDF had. As an example we look into city elections: all voters are known with real world address, so you can send an letter with an authentication code. Or for other elections you can use email-accounts plus phone number, if you want 2FA.

About the award of the city of Munich and possible future implementations a team member explained via Reddit:

We now will discuss the next steps with the city council how to implement the solution.

Recommended for you:

• Buy Stellar Guide
• Stellar Wallet Tutorial
• Check 24-hour Stellar Price
• More Stellar News
• What is Stellar?