Ghostware
Ghostware introduces a simple device that leverages blockchain to decrease vote-buying practices.
Demo
About
Why are you participating for Based LatAm? We are excited to participate in this Buildathon because of Base’s commitment to empowering builders in Latin America to solve real-world community problems using blockchain technology. We appreciate that Base recognizes the talent in LATAM and has invested in it by offering a generous prize to hopefully motivate the continuation of selected projects, fostering innovation. Our project, Ghostware, combines the benefits of blockchain with a real-world use case, to decrease corruption during the election process — a pressing issue in many Latin American countries. The solution has the potential as well to scale to the private sector, supporting Base's mission of onboarding millions of new users to blockchain. Additional Features Moving forward, Ghostware will connect the base wallet to the dashboard (landing), implement multiple data sources and incorporate ZK-proof technology to ensure even greater privacy and security. We will also introduce third-party audits and certifications to guarantee transparency and trust. The solution will be adaptable for use in industries beyond elections, such as in event management. Lastly, we plan to enhance security with AI-driven threat detection, ensuring the system stays ahead of evolving risks.
How it's made
What challenges are you focusing on? Ghostware focuses on tackling corruption in elections by eliminating vote-buying enabled by the distribution of physical voter rolls before election day. Vote-buying allows corrupt actors to manipulate the process, buying votes from vulnerable populations, undermining democracy and silencing the people. Worse still, vote-buying perpetuates the known truth: politicians use poverty to stay in power, and if poverty keeps them in control, they'll never prioritize ending it. How does your submission address this challenge? Ghostware tackles the challenge by replacing physical voter rolls with blockchain-backed software, seamless to the user, integrated into a simple device that allows or denies a voter access to a specific voting module. It displays only the voter's picture for recognition, keeping all other data hidden from election officials. This prevents vote-buying, as voter rolls are no longer distributed beforehand, and election officials have no physical access to voters' personal information. By ensuring secure, tamper-proof identity verification, Ghostware strengthens election integrity and reduces corruption. Challenges we ran into The first challenge we ran into was that our dev disappeared four days before delivery. We overcame this by strengthening the business case and emphasizing the use of the smart wallet, Basename, as well as other tech on the roadmap for further development. A second key challenge was reducing the complexity of the problem to something more specific and manageable. The issue of electoral corruption is vast, with many layers to address. To overcome this, we focused on the immediate benefits of blockchain, choosing a clear entry point by targeting the replacement of the physical voter roll, a significant enabler of vote-buying.