喬治亞州斯克里文縣利用比特幣區塊鏈維護選舉結果創造歷史

斯克里文縣選舉委員會與 Simple Proof（一家使用比特幣區塊鏈保護數位記錄的美國公司）合作，以確保他們的選舉結果不會被更改。

A U.S. voter submits a ballot. (Photo by Ed JONES / AFP) (Photo by ED JONES/AFP via Getty Images)

一名美國選民提交選票。 （艾德瓊斯/法新社拍攝）（艾德瓊斯/法新社透過蓋蒂圖片社拍攝）

Screven County, Georgia made history on Friday when it became the first county in the United States to use the Bitcoin blockchain to safeguard the results of its elections.

喬治亞州斯克雷文縣週五創造了歷史，成為美國第一個使用比特幣區塊鏈來保障選舉結果的縣。

The Screven County Board of Elections worked with Simple Proof, a U.S. company that protects digital records using the Bitcoin blockchain, to ensure that their election results couldn’t be altered.

斯克里文縣選舉委員會與 Simple Proof（一家使用比特幣區塊鏈保護數位記錄的美國公司）合作，以確保他們的選舉結果不會被更改。

Supervisor of Elections Stacy Scott Mincey hired Simple Proof to make sure that the handling of votes in her county wasn’t called into question the way it was in another Georgia county during the 2020 elections.

選舉主管 Stacy Scott Mincey 聘請了 Simple Proof，以確保她所在縣的選票處理不會像 2020 年選舉期間佐治亞州另一個縣那樣受到質疑。

“One of my goals was to do everything I could to make sure that people in the county felt secure, that their votes counted, especially with the heightened concerns around security and voter fraud,” Mincey told me in an interview. “Using Simple Proof was just one more step that we took to make sure that our results could not be tampered with in any way.”

明西在接受採訪時告訴我：「我的目標之一是盡一切努力確保該縣人民感到安全，確保他們的選票有價值，尤其是在人們對安全和選民欺詐的擔憂日益加劇的情況下。 」 “使用簡單證明只是我們為確保我們的結果不會以任何方式篡改而採取的又一步。”

What Simple Proof Does

簡單證明的作用是什麼

Simple Proof gained notoriety when its immutable proof service was used to safeguard the results of Guatemala’s most recent presidential election, which was detailed in the documentary Immutable Democracy.

Simple Proof 因其不可變的證明服務被用來保護危地馬拉最近的總統選舉結果而聲名狼藉，紀錄片《不可變的民主》對此進行了詳細介紹。

Simple Proof uses an open-source protocol called OpenTimestamps, developed by Peter Todd, a former Bitcoin Core developer.

Simple Proof 使用名為 OpenTimestamps 的開源協議，該協議由前比特幣核心開發人員 Peter Todd 開發。

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The protocol enables cryptographic timestamping, which uses hash functions to preserve information on Bitcoin’s immutable ledger. The information is stored in the OP_RETURN function of a Bitcoin transaction. This is where the party sending a transaction can include arbitrary information, which is similar to the “memo” space on a physical check.

該協議支援加密時間戳，它使用哈希函數來保存比特幣不可變帳本上的信息。該資訊儲存在比特幣交易的 OP_RETURN 函數中。這是發送交易的一方可以包含任意資訊的地方，類似於實體支票上的「備註」空間。

Anyone can then verify this immutable proof on Simple Proof’s platform or independently in a trustless manner via the Bitcoin blockchain. Put a simpler way, Simple Proof enables the public to verify the election results and other official documents once they’re secured by the Bitcoin blockchain.

然後任何人都可以在 Simple Proof 的平台上驗證這個不可變的證明，或者透過比特幣區塊鏈以不信任的方式獨立驗證。簡而言之，簡單證明使公眾能夠驗證選舉結果和其他官方文件，一旦它們受到比特幣區塊鏈的保護。

Simple Proof And Screven County

簡單證明和斯克里文縣

In the case of the Screven County elections, the information stored on the blockchain was the Election Summary Reports, which contain vote tallies, and the Statement of Votes Cast, which provides a county-wide overview of election results and other election details.

就斯克里文縣選舉而言，儲存在區塊鏈上的資訊是選舉摘要報告（其中包含計票結果）和投票聲明（提供全縣選舉結果和其他選舉細節的概覽）。

Carlos Toriello, Elections Lead at Simple Proof, said that his organization worked to make it as easy as possible for Mincey to protect these documents.

Simple Proof 的選舉負責人 Carlos Toriello 表示，他的組織致力於讓 Mincey 盡可能輕鬆地保護這些文件。

“We wanted to make sure that this was painless for Stacy,” Toriello told me in an interview.

「我們希望確保史黛西不會感到痛苦，」托列洛在接受採訪時告訴我。

He went on to share that all Mincey had to do was email the documents to Simple Proof’s immutable proof service, which automatically timestamped the documents on the blockchain.

他接著分享說，Mincey 所要做的就是將文件透過電子郵件發送到 Simple Proof 的不可變證明服務，該服務會自動在區塊鏈上為文件添加時間戳記。

The first instance of this timestamping occurred at 7:54 p.m. EST on November 5, 2024 and can be viewed via its Simple Proof verification page.

該時間戳記的第一個實例發生在美國東部時間 2024 年 11 月 5 日晚上 7:54，可以透過其簡單證明驗證頁面查看。

Screenshot for Simple Proof's Document Verification Portal

Simple Proof 文件驗證入口網站的螢幕截圖

“Block number 869,047 is the first block in Bitcoin's chain to contain proof of a U.S. election,” said Toriello.

「區塊號 869,047 是比特幣鏈中第一個包含美國大選證據的區塊，」Toriello 說。

Screven County’s Voting System

斯克雷文縣的投票系統

While Simple Proof protects voting records, it doesn’t ensure the legitimacy of the votes. In the U.S., this responsibility falls on the local board of elections.

雖然簡單證明可以保護投票記錄，但它不能確保投票的合法性。在美國，這項責任由地方選舉委員會負責。

“In Georgia, the Secretary of State does a great job of making sure that the elections are secure,” said Mincey.

「在喬治亞州，國務卿在確保選舉安全方面做得很好，」明西說。

“We use machines, but we have paper ballots, too. So, if there’s a problem, we can go back and hand count the paper ballots,” she added.

「我們使用機器，但我們也有紙本選票。因此，如果出現問題，我們可以回去手工清點紙質選票，」她補充道。

Mincey went on to share that the machines count the ballots and produce the aforementioned reports. However, she and her team have a means of checking that the reports are at least mostly correct.

明西接著分享說，機器會計算選票並產生上述報告。然而，她和她的團隊有辦法檢查這些報告至少大部分是正確的。

“Our county does an audit where we hand count a portion of the ballots to make sure they match what we got from the machine,” said Mincey. “I think that's a great extra step of security that we have to make sure that the elections are valid.”

明西說：“我們縣進行了一次審計，我們手工清點了部分選票，以確保它們與我們從機器上獲得的結果相符。” “我認為這是一個重要的額外安全步驟，我們必須確保選舉有效。”

How Mincey Found Simple Proof

明西如何找到簡單的證明

Not only does Mincey have a deep knowledge of how voting works in her state, but she’s also quite familiar with Bitcoin. And it’s actually because of Bitcoin that she met Toriello.

明西不僅對她所在州的投票運作方式有深入的了解，而且對比特幣也非常熟悉。事實上，正是因為比特幣，她才認識了托列洛。

Members of Mincey’s meetup group attended Bitcoin 2024 this past July (Mincey couldn’t make the event). The group members met Toriello and Simple Proof’s booth at the conference, where they were raising awareness about how public records can be protected in an immutable manner using Bitcoin.

Mincey 聚會小組的成員於去年 7 月參加了 Bitcoin 2024（Mincey 未能參加該活動）。小組成員在會議上會見了 Toriello 和 Simple Proof 的展位，他們在那裡提高了人們對如何使用比特幣以不可變的方式保護公共記錄的認識。

“Our call to action was Uncle Honey Badger

「我們的行動呼籲是蜜獾叔叔