A Systematic Literature Review and Meta-Analysis on Scalable Blockchain-Based Electronic Voting Systems

Sensors (Basel). 2022 Oct 6;22(19):7585. doi: 10.3390/s22197585.

Abstract

Electronic voting systems must find solutions to various issues with authentication, data privacy and integrity, transparency, and verifiability. On the other hand, Blockchain technology offers an innovative solution to many of these problems. The scalability of Blockchain has arisen as a fundamental barrier to realizing the promise of this technology, especially in electronic voting. This study seeks to highlight the solutions regarding scalable Blockchain-based electronic voting systems and the issues linked with them while also attempting to foresee future developments. A systematic literature review (SLR) was used to complete the task, leading to the selection of 76 articles in the English language from 1 January 2017 to 31 March 2022 from the famous databases. This SLR was conducted to identify well-known proposals, their implementations, verification methods, various cryptographic solutions in previous research to evaluate cost and time. It also identifies performance parameters, the primary advantages and obstacles presented by different systems, and the most common approaches for Blockchain scalability. In addition, it outlines several possible research avenues for developing a scalable electronic voting system based on Blockchain technology. This research helps future research before proposing or developing any solutions to keep in mind all the voting requirements, merits, and demerits of the proposed solutions and provides further guidelines for scalable voting solutions.

Keywords: Bitcoin; Blockchain; Internet of things; cryptography; electronic voting; ethereum; hyperledger fabric; scalability; smart contract.

Publication types

  • Meta-Analysis
  • Review
  • Systematic Review

MeSH terms

  • Blockchain*
  • Electronics
  • Politics
  • Privacy
  • Technology

Grants and funding

We would like to thank the Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia for funding. Code PP-FTSM-2021.