Despite still being in its infancy, electronic voting is “inevitable.” And what better way to ensure transparency and efficiency than to integrate the blockchain technology to elections?

That was the “what if” question posed by a new paper written by Philip Bucher for the European Parliament.

“Now we have a further choice; to continue trusting central authorities to manage elections or to use blockchain technology to distribute an open voting record among citizens,” posited the paper.

Blockchain is the underlying technology that supports popular digital currency bitcoin. It makes use of cryptography to create a distributed ledger system in order to hold and spend money in a more open, transparent and flexible manner compared to the traditional bank or credit card companies.