Central American Country Uses Bitcoin To Conduct Fair Election; Here’s How

While the Bitcoin architecture is largely a proof of work system to build a new version of electronic payment system, its timestamping server is helping unlock a new use case in Central American country Guatemala’s presidential election.

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Bitcoin & Guatemala Election

A surprising use case was found thanks to the technology behind Bitcoin during the 2023 Guatemalan general election. The country’s president elect Bernardo Arévalo faced allegations of election misconduct and the opposing candidate demanded that there be a recounting of votes. That’s when Simple Proof’s web tool stepped in to show that the voting was actually timestamped when the voting closed on the day of election. This had reportedly helped verify the authenticity of voting with their respective timings.

Why Election Faced Allegations In First Place?

On August 29, 2023, Arevalo was confirmed as the winner of the election by the country’s authorities, only to be challenged legally about the unexpected victory over a powerful candidate. According to a report by The Associated Press, the president elect faced a slew of legal challenges and allegations of irregularities since he defeated a candidate favored by the country’s conservative elite.

In the “Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System” whitepaper by Satoshi Nakamoto, timestamping is used effectively to generate a hash based proof of work, one that is impossible to tamper with unless the entire chain’s proof of work is redone. The timestamp server is used to prevent double spending and maintain the integrity of the network.

This development in the region comes at a time when another Central American country, El Salvador, continues to empower the Bitcoin ecosystem. The country had adopted BTC as legal tender in September 2021, becoming the first in the world to adopt a cryptocurrency officially.

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