Vitalik Buterin, co-founder of Ethereum, stated that there is a cryptographic tool which will allow you to do on-chain voting in private. The tool would also eliminate the need for a committee that manages ballot boxes and reveals the results. Buterin wrote a technical paper Monday about how you could combine Indistinguishability Obfuscation (iO), an advanced form of encryption, with blockchain technology to create a voting system which has "almost zero" trust assumptions. The system would also provide privacy for your vote and protect you from colluding with others.
Although this idea is still very much in its infancy, Buterin believes it may provide a viable option for creating more secure decentralized governance models in the future. With such a model, voters would be able to cast votes on-chain while keeping their choice private and without needing to rely on a small number of administrators to securely manage sensitive voting data.
Source: Vitalik Buterin
HOW INDISTINGUISHABILITY OBFUSCATION COULD PROTECT VOTES
Indistinguishable Obfuscation (IO) is a type of advanced encryption that transforms programs into a "protected" program. To put it simply, users can execute the program and receive the correct results.
However, they cannot look at how the program operates internally; nor can they extract any data that was hidden within the program. Buterin states that IO is a method to hide the actual code of the program, rather than just the input data. When applied to on-chain voting, IO may be used to allow a protected program to process encrypted ballots and provide only the total number of votes for each candidate. This will protect individual votes and eliminate the requirement of a trusted group of individuals to collectively decrypt the tally. Many of the current private voting systems rely upon groups of operators holding portions of a decryption key. Operators are responsible for safeguarding the process and acting in good faith. Buterin's proposal would limit reliance upon such groups through the use of protected programs that are designed to produce only the final vote count.
This may make blockchain-based governance systems more difficult to manipulate, decrease the likelihood of an operator interfering with the process and protect voters from being pressured or retaliated against based on how they voted.
WHY BLOCKCHAINS WOULD STILL BE NEEDED
Buterin stated that iO alone would not suffice as an all-inclusive system for conducting elections. A program which has been obfuscated cannot prevent itself from being copied nor can it autonomously track changes in data over time.
Therefore, the implementation of blockchain technology is essential. Blockchain technology can create a publicly accessible database of ballots, their execution and final outcomes. Blockchain technology can also help to ensure the uniform application of rules to all participants and to maintain the transparency of the electoral process while still protecting the confidentiality of each voter's choice. Cryptographic techniques would be utilized to preserve the anonymity of each vote, while blockchain technology would serve as the collective platform necessary to confirm that the election process was carried out appropriately.
TECHNOLOGY REMAINS FAR FROM PRACTICAL USE
Although the possibilities are there, Buterin stated clearly that indistinguishability obfuscation is not ready for use in actual crypto governance systems. He explained that the most secure iO constructions would take an incredible amount of computational power; therefore, it will not be possible to deploy iO in practice at present due to its slowness and costliness. There are more efficient methods available, however, these methods depend upon new and untested security assumptions. When developing a voting system that can potentially affect how protocols operate and/or where funds from a treasury are allocated, relying on uncertain or unverified security assumptions creates significant risk.
BUTERIN CONTINUES PUSH FOR ETHEREUM PRIVACY
This essay is based upon Vitalik Buterin's general interest in providing an environment of privacy within the Ethereum ecosystem. Buterin's broader vision of privacy for the entire Ethereum ecosystem is reflected in this essay. Buterin's most recent essay extends upon this previous concept by detailing how the cryptography would function, what assumptions are needed to allow it to operate and why significant technical obstacles exist. Buterin's earlier roadmap (published October 2024), where he associated indistinguishability obfuscation with private voting, stated that it could provide greater levels of privacy and reduce the potential for coercion. Buterin has additionally provided support for the development of privacy-enhancing technologies via his own financial contributions. On January 30, Buterin designated 16,384 ether, worth approximately 45 million USD at the time of designation, toward the creation of open-source infrastructure and self-sovereign applications that focus on preserving users' privacy.
Additionally, Buterin outlined a shorter-term roadmap for implementing a privacy-focused environment on Ethereum in April 2025. That roadmap outlined plans to incorporate privacy tools directly into current wallet software and to implement enhanced safeguards against the collection of user data by the providers of wallet infrastructure used to connect to the network.
WHY PRIVATE ONCHAIN VOTING MATTERS
However, because on-chain voting is so common in the decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) and blockchain governance space, one of the biggest challenges to on-chain voting is privacy. If all votes are public, then voters can be subjected to pressure, bribes, and retaliation.
In addition, if the voting system relies on trusted committees, then voters have to trust that the committee members will keep their data safe and will not manipulate the results of the election. An on-chain voting system that is both private and has minimal trust requirements would provide greater security and credibility to decentralized governance. This would allow blockchain communities to vote on issues without being forced to disclose their views on politics, finances, or governance. Currently, Buterin's proposal for on-chain voting is still in the early stages of development and is currently an advanced research concept rather than a deployable solution.