Blockchain solution to contested elections

4 College of Cape City (UCT) college students walked away with R50 000 on the Monetary Innovation Hub (FinHub) Hack Sequence I, after efficiently pitching a blockchain voting resolution to thwart the issue of fraudulent outcomes arising from elections.

The scholars – Muhaimin Khan, Reward Jaravani, Anson Vattakunnel and Alé Pouroullis (who couldn’t attend) – named their app “Thunderdome”. Along with the prize cash, a bursary to the worth of R75 000 was additionally introduced for every of the quartet.

Blockchain is defined as “a construction used for a distributed or shared database consisting of discrete blocks of information, with every new block secured and related to earlier ones by cryptography”.

“The issue that we’re coping with immediately is the problem of fraudulent African elections; and our resolution is to create a safe and clear blockchain-based voting system. Many people are conscious of how critical election fraud allegations are,” stated Jaravani.

“Our technique of addressing it’s to create a voting system that takes out the third-party component that may be influenced by corruption.”

Established in 2021, the FinHub leverages the area’s thriving expertise ecosystem and collaborates with UCT in its deal with educational analysis, training, thought management and innovation. As such, the intention is to bridge the hole between academia, startups and policymakers.

It was created to answer the rising demand for blockchain expertise within the monetary sector.

The FinHub Hack Sequence I used to be themed “Blockchain for Sustainability: Hacking Options for the United Nations Sustainable Improvement Objectives (SDGs)”.

“It grew to become my whole day, for a few days.”

A Dragons’ Den-themed presentation wherein teams showcased their initiatives came about throughout the closing ceremony on the finish of July, after which they fielded questions from the judges and viewers members.

Anda Ngcaba, the co-director on the FinHub, stated after the occasion: “Witnessing the dedication and dedication of the groups as they developed revolutionary blockchain options for the United Nations SDGs was inspiring. The occasion really demonstrated the boundless potentialities that blockchain expertise affords in addressing world challenges and advancing sustainable growth.”

For the winners – represented by three of the 4 group members – it got here as a shock. As Khan put it, the times main as much as the presentation have been “crunch”.

Dream

“I’d be awake till 06:00, take a nap, get up and keep it up with the venture,” he stated.

“I labored a lot – to the purpose that in direction of the previous few days, I had a dream for a characteristic for us to implement [in our project], and it went within the pitch deck! To me, that provides an thought of how a lot this has been on my thoughts. It grew to become my whole day, for a few days.”

Vattakunnel additionally weighed in on the frenzy that visited them as they wrapped up their work, recalling how “sooner or later we tried to determine good contracts [executable code]; however after we tried to set it up on our private computer systems, it wasn’t working. Then, on the final day, all our machines began crashing. First Muhaimin, then Reward. Then I mistakenly erased my whole system!”

Nevertheless it was a case of all’s effectively that ends effectively for the workforce. “The fulfilment has been in working with the individuals on this group,” Jaravani famous.

One other bespoke concept that got here out of the group shows was a South African Police Service help app to discourage corruption, with a blockchain-based docket administration system to protect docket integrity and stop docket tampering.

The viewers additionally heard a couple of monetary self-help app focusing on common customers, a peer-to-peer energy-trading market, and a real-time on-line procurement-process bidding web site.

Ngcaba added: “On the FinHub, we intention to foster a tradition of monetary innovation that positively impacts society. The FinHub Hack Sequence I performed a big function in attaining this, by offering a platform for gifted people to collaborate and create ground-breaking options.”

The winners have already got their sights set on testing their work throughout the College students’ Consultant Council elections. Jaravani defined that they need to be able to go to Info and Communication Know-how Providers (ICTS) and the innovation division, and current it as an utility programming interface (API). This could enable ICTS to implement it, make the API calls, and watch it return outcomes. These outcomes will then be tallied and saved securely.

“It’s additionally straightforward to confirm outcomes to see that nobody has tampered with [them]. Everybody can confirm that their vote issues. This venture has potential, and I’m excited to see the place it goes,” added Vattakunnel.

What FinHub affords:

• Analysis: Addressing funding gaps and fostering transformative innovation.
• Schooling/Educating: Growing a talented workforce by way of an MPhil in monetary expertise, on-line programs, and tailor-made coaching.
• Thought management: Facilitating discussions between academia, policymakers and trade specialists.
• Innovation: Commercialising analysis findings, supporting student-led startups, driving entrepreneurship and job creation.

Impression up to now:

• Over 60 grasp’s college students educated in Africa’s first grasp’s in monetary expertise programme.
• Over 51% feminine and over 54% black African college students.
• Over R14.5 million disbursed in bursaries to postdoctoral analysis fellows, PhD candidates, and grasp’s college students since 2021.