The world’s first ever blockchain-powered presidential election was held in Sierra Leone on March 7, 2018. Swiss-based blockchain startup Agora delivered results “2 hours before the official count”.

From the point of view of voters, this election was no different from an ordinary one. Voters came to polling stations, presented documents, take ballot papers, and made a mark opposite the name of a candidate. Then ballots were manually inputted into the permissioned blockchain system.

Unlike public blockchain protocols, permissioned blockchain systems have access controls that make it possible for only authorized persons to validate entries. In the case of the Sierra Leone election, representatives of the Red Cross and the University of Freiburg helped Agora’s team to enter votes into the blockchain-based voting system and audit the results.

Sierra Leone is notorious for its political corruption and violence around election time. Therefore, this African country was chosen to test technology designed to make election process more independent.

Agora’s team believes that the Sierra Leone election is only the beginning. The company hopes to allow people to vote by electronic devices in the not too distant future. This will reduce election costs, make voting more convenient, and prevent vote rigging.