Application type
ELECTION DAO
Project Overview
In her book, It’s Our Turn to Eat, Michela Wrong highlights the story of a Kenyan bureaucrat in charge of fighting endemic corruption who had to quit his job and flee into exile for fear of his life. The stake in question is billions of dollars disbursed to government departments to run the functions of the state. In most instances, the pathway to these billions involves winning a national election. Meaning, such elections are easily a matter of life and death.
It is no wonder the Kenyan elections, and indeed most elections in Africa, where a win guarantees the winner unhindered access to the national coffers, almost always precede a wave of violence. The bone of contention and the genesis of such violence often is the outcome; the electoral tools employed by the bodies in charge of polls in these countries are compromised. As such, it is often difficult to determine the clear winner. Various disgruntled camps that fail to snatch the coveted prize take advantage of the situation to plunge the country into violence. Sadly, women and children often are the big losers when they are rendered homeless, raped, and harmed in all sorts of grievous ways.
The DAO we propose seeks to stop the waves of violence by developing a tool anchored on blockchain technology that would help electoral processes of any nature to be conducted in a free and fair environment. In the short term as the project aims to gain traction, it will be tested on simple elections like during student union elections in the universities. Then in the long-term, the DAO would work with both governmental and non-governmental organizations to help stakeholders find real and transformative use of technology to address real-life challenges.
The primary functions of the DAO are advancing e-voting through innovation and community organizing. E-voting is defined as decentralized digital voting systems utilizing blockchain technology. The long-range aim is to provide assistance to governmental and national voting systems. Initially, we will work with national educational institutions to prototype and test the system.
Kenyan national elections are mired in coercive violence that affects the outcome of elections. Men, Women, and children are greatly affected by these practices. This new D.A.O. will address these issues with four mandates: Community Organizing, Public Relations, Innovation, and Cryptocurrency Adoption.
The problem to be solved
Blockchain use cases in Kenya have been mostly limited to cryptocurrency’s ability to transfer or store value, even though many other implementable use cases are available. Democracy in Kenya is under threat. Kenyan elections are sensitive periods and suffer from systemic violence. The country loses an average of $2.5 billion every electioneering period. The situation escalated in 2007 when almost 1,200 lives were lost, hundreds of thousands displaced, and property worth billions destroyed. Overall, the country lost over $10 billion in election-related violence; the stock market lost $95m in one day. Such losses are avoidable if the election system can irrefutably determine the winners and the losers. Trusted democratic systems and fair elections are the foundation of a prosperous and equitable society. Promoting inclusivity in blockchain development is one of the core agendas of Harmony. This DAO is partnering with H.E.R. DAO to ensure gender inclusivity is implemented in all areas of the DAO. Women are the ones who suffer the most during the violence, and the data shows that when women’s lives are improved, society improves exponentially.
The solution
The proposed project is a public good to aid democracy. We intend to build and develop an e-voting system that has the potential to change the voting process in Kenya by bringing trust, verifiability, tamper-proof attributes to the process. The starting point is a blockchain-based electronic voting (e-voting) system built on the Harmony network. It would help the country adopt a trustworthy approach and justify using blockchain applications in more government departments. The government has been actively looking for a solution.
The e-voting System
The proposed system comprises three distinct, interrelated parts, which will help to conduct credible elections.
-
Registration of Voters – The system proposes to use Smile ID to certify the eligibility of the voters. It will only accept and register Kenyan nationals. Besides Smile ID, the system will incorporate a registration using WebAuthn to vote via a website.
-
The voting process – Voting, tallying, and transmission of results will be undertaken on the system deployed on the Harmony network. Since the process is the most critical aspect of the elections, carrying it out over blockchain interphase heightens transparency.
-
Election administration – Election administrators will be appointed to oversee the addition of candidates.
Contract Deployment
Below is how the system will look during testing
https://brytonstech.netlify.app/#/
Below is the transaction ID of the system smart contract deployed:
Tech for good
The project is in line with the United Nations SDG 8: DECENT WORK AND ECONOMIC GROWTH and SDG 9: INDUSTRY, INNOVATION AND INFRASTRUCTURE. The project will provide decent jobs to the developers and everyone that will be involved in the project. Also, the project has the potential to help blockchain become a mainstream technology and hence increase adoption, especially when it is used to conduct national elections.
How the System Helps the Harmony Network
Community Organizing:
While we anticipate 95% of the elections will be online, we intend to create physical voting stations in all major universities in Nairobi City (the Silicon Savannah) this will help spread our brand among university students in Kenya. We have created a team of blockchain enthusiasts to assist in developing the system. This team will increase as we get bigger; we will help other teams work on their ideas and help grow the Harmony community.
Public Relations:
Utilizing radio, print, and digital ads propagated with the Harmony logo will elevate Harmony’s exposure to the African market. The culmination will help Harmony not only in Kenya but worldwide. We will be using Harmony.One t-shirt during the elections and voting process, we will also run national campaigns, and we will be on national T.V. rocking blue harmony t-shirts.
Innovation:
Devising a frictionless e-voting system and curating novel ways of engaging the community, Kenyan citizens will be introduced to blockchain and its implementation on large-scale public goods projects. We will be offering technical expertise to other private organizations on how they can implement Harmony.One into their systems to increase the size of Harmony.One community in Kenya.
The Ask
To start and test the system, we need $248.400, as shown in the detailed projected budget. The money will be used to create the e-voting system; the e-voting system will be open source, meaning further development can take place to assist the entire ecosystem. People will use tokens to vote. Since we believe spreading cryptocurrency awareness is essential, we will be incentivizing young people to vote using our system. This will be to encourage young people to join the cryptocurrency space. By combining democracy and increasing cryptocurrency awareness among young people, we will have solved both of our organization’s long-term goals of increasing blockchain adoption around the world. It will be the first e-voting token in Kenya and can get widespread quickly depending on the number of voters. An open-source token-based e-voting system will enhance adoption by the mainstream organizations; this will improve the whole Harmony eco-system and democracy in our institutions.
| month 1 | month 2 | month 3 | month 4 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| conferences (with all stakeholders) | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| meetups (two meetups weekly) | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 |
| elections( one election per month) | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| units | price | total | ||
| system redesign | 1 | $15,000 | $15,000 | |
| elections | 4 | $20,000 | $80,000 | |
| salaries (4 months) | 1 | $45,000 | $45,000 | |
| conferences | 4 | $3,000 | $12,000 | |
| meetups (all company executive meetups) | 32 | $1,000 | $32,000 | |
| online advertising | 4 | $2,000 | $8,000 | |
| physical polling stations (one per university) | 16 | $1,500 | $24,000 | |
| subtotal | $216,000 | |||
| safety net | $32,400 | |||
| total costs | $248,400 |
Activities - How we will achieve our mandates and objectives
-
Build an e-voting system that has its own community
-
Producing media for national T.V. focused on general education on blockchain – on various T.V. stations and what it can do to shape democracy, finance, and governance, we will produce 4 videos per month showing how blockchain can be implemented in various businesses and governmental
-
Conduct three elections to test the system
-
Look for a national organization and help them conduct elections
-
Educate the public on what makes Harmony efficient and the best blockchain
-
Monthly consultative meetings with all relevant election stakeholders to discuss how we can Improve election transparency
-
Build networks with local and governmental official departments
Outcomes
-
Register 5.000 new users in the Harmony community, through rewards in the first three months
-
Harmony penetration rate would increase among business owners, government officials, developers, and Kenyan citizens at large.
-
Media coverage of Harmony and its essential part in helping African blockchain startups grow.
-
Successful voting among Kenyan citizens, mostly those who are in the age bracket of 18-40 years, the country has been experiencing voter apathy among the young generations.
-
Prevent election-related violence, a significant problem in the last 15 years.
Success Metrics
-
Number of / percentage of people who vote in an election compared to the previous year
-
How many e-voting machines are used
-
The absence of a significant reduction in election violence
-
A decrease in the female mortality rate and female related violence in the election periods
-
The effect on the economy, measured by the performance of the stock market
-
The number of local and national relationships or partnerships
Road Map
Q1
In quarter one, we intend to reach the following milestones.
- Build the e-voting system and test it three times - the first election will entail testing the system’s core functionalities: voting process, result transmission, and a voter turnout assessment. The second election will involve the use of tokens to reward voters after they complete their voting process, the third election will entail helping national organizations conduct elections by purchasing a few tokens (first client)
- Look for a potential B2B customer and implement the system for them.
Team
Electoral fraud is a global issue; therefore, the team will consist of people from all over the world to harness global insights from the community. We are forming a strategic community partnership with H.E.R. D.A.O. to help us work towards parity of leadership and have included three women governors. Hence, the project team comprises a ratio of 70/30 men to women.
The team is composed of people with a diverse skillset to help in the implementation of the project, it composed of older and more experienced individuals like Eduard (Founder of Africa Harmony DAO ), Tracey Bowen (founder of H.E.R DAO), Daniel Ayuko ( blockchain journalist with over 1o years experience in the blockchain industry). Below is a detailed analysis of the team.
Daniel Ayuko - Lead Governor
Daniel is an experienced freelance journalist with a flair for fair reporting in the FinTech space. He is also an intelligent marketer and advisor on blockchain projects and brings tons of experience in their operation. He boasts experience of over seven years of reporting in the blockchain space.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/daniel-ayuko-9450b622/
Eduard - Consultant - Harmony Africa DAO founder
He holds a Ph.D. and Master of International Affairs. He is an international development expert with +10 years of experience in Africa working on projects financed by the U.S.A.I.D., U.S.I.P., etc., and has worked in the Sahel for numerous years. He has actively collaborated with other organizations in the past, such as the Ethereum Foundation and Polygon, reviewing the African crypto landscape, mentoring local startups, and supporting them in grant applications. He is a football fan and particularly enjoys hiking in the Pyrenees (as well as building Märklin train models).
https://www.linkedin.com/in/eduard-peris-deprez/
Tracey Bowen - Founder, developer, legal & data/AI researcher
Tracey has been in the blockchain and crypto space for 8+ years. She is a civic tech entrepreneur, law graduate, and Data/A.I.A.I. researcher who advocates for equitable futures for all. She was an award-winning musician, artist, and creative technologist in her former career. Currently undertaking the Consensys Blockchain Developer Boot Camp.
Founder, H.E.R. DAO / Founder, Black Tech Task Force / Founder, Controlr / Founder, SonR / Data Research Fellow, South West Creative Technology Network / Mozilla Creative Media Award Winner / Radical xChange Fellow / Mercury Music Prize Winner
https://www.linkedin.com/in/tracey-bowen/
Paul MColaka -Blockchain Researcher
Paul McOlaka has an MSc in Financial Engineering and is currently pursuing short courses on Blockchain, Haskell and Solidity Programming. He is currently a Senior Research & Executive Officer with Blockchain & Climate Institute (BCI), a progressive think tank providing leading expertise in the deployment of emerging technologies for climate and sustainability actions. BCI being an international network of scientific and technological experts, Paul has interacted and learned from the best minds and gained diverse experience, including research in emerging technologies like Blockchain and climate change issues. Paul has extensive knowledge of the global financial and banking services industry and a wealth of experience in financial markets, dark web, Open Source Intelligence (OSINT), tax havens, and emerging technologies. Paul has previously worked with Barclays Bank (K) Ltd, Winton Investment Services Ltd, and Genghis Capital Ltd, among others. Paul is passionate about decentralized ledger technologies and envisions an interoperable future where different chains co-exist side-by-side with each other and at the same time allow transactions with legacy systems. Paul loves writing and has published a number of articles related to finance, banking, money laundering, and emerging technologies.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/paulmcolaka/?originalSubdomain=ke
Brian A.K - Fintech and media/cofounder
A tech entrepreneur who is passionate about integrating business processes with technology to maximize the value generated. co-founder of Kotani Pay. Kotani Pay is a technology stack that enables Blockchain protocols, Dapps, and Blockchain FinTech companies to integrate seamlessly to local payment channels in Africa. We provide a reliable on-ramp and off-ramp service to reach a broader customer base that operates primarily on mobile money services.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/brian-a-k-2a9385163/
Mercy Kuboi - Computer Scientist
Mercy Kuboi is currently a student at Kenyatta University pursuing a degree in computer science, am also a certified data scientist, and is so enthusiastic about web development and machine learning. She has been doing projects in blockchain for 2+ years. She is a member of the Harmony community and has done a Bootcamp in Huawei security and obtained a certificate. I am proficient in networking, security, and data science. I love networking with people from all over the world and learning new things from them.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/mercy-kuboi-41b9b720a/
Levin Munyelele -
Levin has been in blockchain for 2+ years. She is a Computer Science student at Kenyatta University, Nairobi. She has also attended various boot camps like the Huawei HCIA-AI, Data science with python, etc. She is skilled in Data Analysis, Visualization, and Analysis, Visualization. She’s doing a short course on Machine Learning. She is enthusiastic and eager to learn new things.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/levin-munyelele-469565193/
Onganyi warren - founder ScanPal
Ochieng Warren is Currently a software engineer at Asanti consulting. Experienced with Web technologies and has worked deploying smart contracts on both etherium and EOS networks.
Has a background in economics and operations research. Co-founder Scanpal Group Limited with a successful exit in two previous startups
https://www.linkedin.com/in/ongayi-warren-94bb7319b/?originalSubdomain=ke
Anthony Kimani - founder Brytons technologies
He is currently studying quantity surveying at the Technical University of Kenya. A passionate blockchain developer with several projects in the E.O.S.I.O. blockchain network. Has several courses in E.O.S.I.O. blockchain, currently studying business management online courses? A member of several Civil societies and charity groups in Kenya. His favorite football club is Liverpool and loves discussing macroeconomics, probability, and statistics for fun.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/antony-kimani-713ab9223/
External Links
Deployment transaction details - Harmony Blockchain Explorer
References
-
Cdn.law.stanford.edu, (2016), Connors-Fatima-Yalim-Preventing-Post-Election-Violence-Based-on-the-Kenyan-Experience, https://www-cdn.law.stanford.edu/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/Cho-Connors-Fatima-Yalim-Preventing-Post-Election-Violence-Based-on-the-Kenyan-Experience.pdf
-
Foreignpolicy.com, (2020), Kenya's 2022 Elections Have Already Begun, With a Succession Battle Looming
-
Akech Achieng Matilda, The Impact of Electoral Violence on Economic Development: A Case of Kenya, Journal of Political Science and International Relations. Vol. 1, No. 3, 2018, pp. 55-71. doe: 10.11648/j.jpsir.20180103.11 Aaron Erlich, (2021)
