South Korean Province Uses Blockchain for Voting

Governor Nam Kyung-pil positioned the test as evidence of blockchain's coming impact. "Blockchains will change the world within a few years just as smartphones did," Nam said. "We can complement the limits of representative democracy with some direct democracy systems by using blockchain, the technology of the Fourth Industrial Revolution."

Won-Beom Kim, Blocko's chief executive, outlined the advantages blockchain brings to voting. Removing the need for a central management infrastructure cuts costs. Counting votes happens faster. The system stores results and voting data on a ledger that resists tampering and hacking, ensuring both integrity and security.

The successful test attracted interest from other organizations. Multiple institutions have approached Blocko about adopting their voting system since the Gyeonggi-do project concluded.

In traditional voting, a single authority handles everything: recording votes, managing the process, counting ballots, and verifying results. Blockchain voting distributes these tasks to voters themselves. Each person receives a copy of the voting record and participates in its verification. Rather than trusting one institution, voters hold the evidence of the outcome.

European researchers pursued a similar vision through the D-Cent project. Running from October 2013 through May 2016, the initiative aimed to build open-source tools for direct democracy backed by blockchain technology. The project sought to create platforms where citizens could exchange content, deliberate, form collective judgments, and vote. The European Commission awarded €1.905 million to support the effort.

Blocko operates Coinstack, a blockchain development platform. The startup counts some of South Korea's largest corporations and financial institutions among its clients: Korea Exchange, Lotte Card, JB Bank, and Samsung Card.