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Data-Hungry: Official Trump 2020 Election App Collects User Data of Voters

US President Donald Trump’s campaign app “Official Trump 2020 App” raised a lot of skepticism, as it has been uncovered that the election app has collected massive amounts of sensitive information on his voters.

Trump is supposed to run against Joe Biden in the presidential election of 2020, and as part of his campaign, his campaign staff created an app that collects information on each user. According to MIT Technology Review, Trump’s app collects far more information on its users than the one created by Joe Biden, his presidential rival.

Official Trump 2020 App

Official Trump 2020 App collects sensitive personal details such as Device ID, call information, and Bluetooth pairing. The app also endorses Trump’s campaign strategy, which seeks to collect the cellphone number of each voter. This means that the Official Trump 2020 App makes considerable permission requests that enable its access to a user’s location, phone identity, and even control over the handset’s Bluetooth function. Trump draws his inspiration for creating his app from India’s very own political figure, Narendra Modi.

At the time of writing, the Official Trump 2020 App has been downloaded approximately 780,000 times.

Propaganda or Facts?

According to MIT Technology Review, the articles, messages, and announcements that run on Trump’s personalized app have no named authors. They also mainly use sources such as government press releases and tweets from Trump’s own supporters and White House staff as fact check standards.

Cambridge Analytica Dreams of Trumping the Rival

In 2016, the Cambridge Analytica Scandal broke out: data from 87 million Facebook users were collected through a personality quiz. Cambridge Analytica was also reported to be involved in Trump’s electoral campaign.

Brittany Kaiser, co-founder of a digital intelligence startup, stated in an interview that blockchain technology could be the ultimate solution in addressing data protection issues.

She stated, “In my opinion, it’s really blockchain tech and blockchain entrepreneurs that are going to solve a lot of problems of the data protection crisis.”

Russia’s E-Voting Blockchain Platform Attacked

Russia’s blockchain e-voting platform for President Vladimir Putin’s proposed Constitutional amendments reportedly suffered a node attack last weekend. The proposal if passed will allow Putin to serve as President until 2036.

Russia’s integration of blockchain-based voting is off to a bad start as the Bitfury powered system was reportedly attacked through an election observer’s node.

The attack occurred on June 27, according to Russian state media organization TASS. However, the media site reports that government officials insist the attack did not cause a system malfunction and all the votes that have been recorded on the blockchain are valid. Cybersecurity experts have reportedly attempted to restore access to the attacked node, however, it is unclear if they have been successful.

Russian Blockchain E-Voting Issues

The e-voting period is slated as June 25 to June 30 for residents of Moscow, with the node attack occurring on the third day. This was not the first issue with the blockchain system as previous reports claim the website for e-voting was inaccessible during the first few hours after it went live.

Further to being inaccessible, it appears to be less than tamper-proof, as a local journalist name Pavel Lobkov, shared a video discussing how he had managed to vote twice—once offline at the local polling station, and then again online less than an hour later. There were similar reports about multiple votes including one from a Russian national Yael Iliinsky who is based in Israel, she claimed she was able to vote three times and even her daughter—a minor—was able to cast a vote.

12 More Years of Putin

The Constitutional amendment proposal was first introduced on Jan 15, 2020, and if passed it would allow Russia’s President Vladimir Putin to serve for another two six-year terms. Should the Russian people vote against the amendments, Putin will have to vacate the presidency by 2024.

Brock Pierce For President, Crypto Venture Capitalist Announces Candidacy

Brock Pierce, the crypto venture capitalist, and former child star, has announced that he will be joining the presidential race in the 2020 US elections.

On July 5, Brock Pierce the entrepreneur and crypto venture capitalist announced his candidacy for President of the United States, running as an Independent in the November 3, 2020, Presidential election.

Pierce made the announcement himself through Twitter, stating, “I, Brock Pierce, am running for President of the United States of America.”

Brock Pierce is an entrepreneur and venture capitalist with a proven track record of founding disruptive businesses. He’s been credited with pioneering the market for digital currency and has raised more than $5 billion for companies he has founded. Pierce is the Chairman of the Bitcoin Foundation and co-founder of EOS Alliance, Blockchain Capital, Tether, and Mastercoin (first ICO).

“I’ve spent my life creating great things from nothing and I can help others do the same,” Pierce said. “Entrepreneurs are essential to the rebuilding of this nation that we love, and I’m running in this race because I know that together we can help build a pathway towards the rebirth of the America we love so much.”

Pierce was born and raised in Minnesota, was a child actor who became an entrepreneur at a very early age, then later became a well-recognized figure in technology and cryptocurrency. A staunch supporter of entrepreneurs and small businesses, he understands what it takes to build a business from the ground up.

Protests Erupt as Alexander Lukashenko Wins Disputed Landslide Election in Crypto Forward Belarus

In Belarus, a highly contested election victory for longstanding President Alexander Lukashenko over Svetlana Tikhanovskaya has erupted in protests. Despite the dispute, the Soviet forged dictator’s stay of power may be good news for crypto.

Protests and demonstrations broke out in Belarus as President Alexander Lukashenko’s re-election was announced in a landslide victory over candidate Svetlana Tikhanovskaya.

As reported on Aug 9, Lukashenko won the election with more than 80% of the vote which has been condemned almost universally as a rigged election and outraged surrounding European nations.

Challenger Tikhanovskaya publically condemned the results. She said, “I believe my own eyes, the majority was for us […] We do not recognize the election results. We have seen real protocols. We urge those who believe that their voice was stolen not to remain silent.”

Lukashenko, Belarus and Blockchain

Lukashenko has been the President of Belarus since the dissolution of the Soviet Union, which he incidentally voted against. He has been the only president in the office of the European nation since 1994, and is regarded as one of the last dictators in Europe.

Photo: Alexander Lukashenko (Wikimedia Commons)

Despite his flaws, Lukashenko has been innovative and forward-thinking in his technology policies and even legalized cryptocurrency and initial coin offerings in Dec. 2017.

In 2019, Lukashenko even proposed using the surplus power from the country’s nuclear power plant to mine Bitcoin and sell them to boost Belarus’ economy. The nuclear plant is under construction and set to be opened by the end of 2020.

Decree No.8

In December 2017, under Lukashenko’s guidance, Belarus adopted Decree No.8 which stipulates the right of physical bodies to perform mining activity and came into the country’s regulation in March 2018.

Belarus may be a small nation but under the disputed leader Lukashenko’s rule they have paved the way for cryptocurrency exchanges to operate in a completely transparent regulatory space. With ongoing development in the legal and regulatory space—Belarus has been considered as one of the best cryptocurrency spaces to work in for exchanges in the twenty-first century.

Lukashenko may hold power for now, but the nation of Belarus does not appear willing to let the Soviet relic hold on to power for too much longer, despite his penchant for innovation.

Why Did Venezuela Block Citizens’ Access to Coinbase Crypto Exchange?

President Nicolas Maduro’s administration is denying the citizens of Venezuela access to United States crypto exchange Coinbase as well as fiat remittance platform MercaDolar according to a local digital rights advocacy group.

According to digital rights group Venezuela Inteligente, internet service providers (ISPs) in Venezuela have blocked Coinbase and MercaDolar under the instruction of President Nicolas Maduro’s government.

According to the Tweet by Inteligente on Sept 9, the move to block the exchange platforms was discovered late on Sept. 8 and the objective of the Maduro administration is unclear as only these two exchanges were singled out in Venezuela while the majority of exchanges are still accessible.

The Director of Venezuela Inteligente Andres E. Azpurua said, “Venezuela has a history of blocking exchange platforms […] Especially those used to exchange local currency for foreign currency.”

Why was Coinbase Singled Out?

The political climate in Venezuela is reaching a boiling point as the country continues to battle the corruption of the Maduro administration.

Juan Guaido is the self-proclaimed interim President of Venezuela and is fast being recognized as the official leader of the country.

Image: Interim President Juan Guaido

According to Reuters, President Juan Guaido on Monday announced a “unitary pact” supported by a coalition of parties calling for increased international pressure on President Nicolas Maduro as the country heads toward a congressional election in December.

Inteligente Director, Azpurua believes that attempts at capital controls over who receives what type of funding in a politically charged climate could be one of the main reasons for the recent ISP blocks of Coinbase and MercaDolar.

On August 20, Coinbase-backed Airtm, well-known for being a censorship-resistant P2P exchange was appointed to redistribute $18 million seized by US authorities to 62,000 healthcare workers.

President Juan Guaido quickly outlined his own plans for helping to return the seized funds to the country’s healthcare workers, however Maduro’s government swiftly blocked Airtm to Venezuelan citizens.

While Maduro has lost almost all credibility on the global stage and in the eyes of his citizens, his response to these measure indicates he is not ready to handover power to his opponent Guaido just yet.

What could a Democrat Sweep in US Elections mean for Bitcoin?

What would it mean for Bitcoin (BTC), if the Democrats manage to pull off a clean sweep in the coming US elections?

An election outcome where Joe Biden defeats Donald Trump in the presidential race and Democrats win a majority in both chambers of Congress would most likely mean more financial stimulus but could trigger the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates earlier than expected—according to one Morgan Stanley executive.

In a report by CNBC on Oct. 21, Jim Caron a portfolio manager at Morgan Stanley Investment Management said that a Democratic sweep of the election would most likely unleash further financial stimulus that could boost US economic growth prospects beyond 2021—however, a ‘blue wave’ could spur the Fed to raise interest rates much earlier than expected.

As reported by Blockchain.News, the Federal Reserve had originally projected back in September that it would maintain its policy rate of near zero until after 2023. Caron told CNBC that should Democrats sweep Republicans in the coming elections, he expects the FED may bring this timeline for interest rate hikes forward a year.

The Morgan Stanley executive said that the US economy was already expected to rebound in 2021 from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic disruption—Caron believes that should Democrats win and pass further stimulus funds, it could boost growth impact into 2022.

While the extra growth sounds positive, Caron said that nobody wants to talk about interest rate hikes at the moment, but the effect of the stimulus “could bring the first rate hike by the Fed in from 2024 to 2025 to maybe 2023 to 2024.”

However, the Morgan Stanley investment manager believes the election will raise more questions than provide answers. Many investors are wary of a Biden win as it is expected it could result in higher taxes and tighter regulations, which could have a knock-on effect on lower corporate profits and less economic growth.

What a Blue Sweep Means For BTC’s price

The Bitcoin price today has seen a sharp rise due to the rising potential that a deal will be made between both parties to release another round of relief stimulus prior to the elections after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said that she and Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin have narrowed their differences. The BTC price has risen on this sentiment alone.

As predicted by Caron of Morgan Stanley, a democratic clean sweep in the next election should definitely guarantee further stimulus packages which would be a boost for the stock markets—as Bitcoin and equities have been strongly correlated in recent months—it could also provide a boost to cryptocurrency prices.

Bitcoin investors continue to bet that the continued flood of government and central bank spending to fight the pandemic-caused economic slowdown will eventually lead to high inflation, which would also be beneficial for cryptocurrencies as the US dollar would lose purchasing power and send BTC’s price surging.

This inflation theory is currently being heavily supported by an onslaught of public companies and notable Bitcoin investors such as the Winklevoss Twins and Paul Tudor Jones.

The Bitcoin price currently sits at $12,259 at the time of writing, and should a pre-election stimulus be passed today we could see BTC go on a powerful surge up the price chart.

Bitcoin Price Breaks Key Resistance As Pre-Election Stimulus Package Goes to Vote

The Bitcoin price continues to rise to new highs for 2020, as the latest stimulus package goes to the Senate for a vote and and cryptocurrency finds new mainstream adoption in PayPal.

The price of Bitcoin (BTC) is defying the turmoils and the uncertainty in the hopes of getting a pre-election stimulus package with its current aggressive bullish runs. While Americans await the vote pass on a stimulus package by the Republican-controlled Senate for a $500 billion budget to cover Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), funding for schools, and expanded unemployment benefits, the anticipations are devoid of the enthusiasm as reported yesterday as Congress has bluntly rejected the bill.

The entire negotiations seem to be in line as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin had finally begun seeing eye to eye in the past days, the possibility of actually getting a Republican-endorsed stimulus cheque before the November elections appear slimmer than ever. Despite these uncertainties, BTC price continues to surpass analysts’ expectations in what appears to be a coordinated take-over by the market bulls.

Besides the stimulus cheque debate by the US lawmakers, other events in the space must have contributed to the bullish impetus of BTC to break three major resistances in the past 24 hours. One of these events is the launch of a BTC inspired cryptocurrency payment and shopping service by online payment giant PayPal. The foray of PayPal into the crypto payment industry signals the long-awaited BTC endorsement of the company with over 300 million accounts, A move that adds credence to the leap of BTC in the past 24 hours.

BTC Surge Has Strong Technical Backing

The price of BTC is currently trading at $12,738.01, a surge of 6.93% in the past 24 hours. While Blockchain.news analysis of Bitcoin price yesterday predicted a bullish momentum for the premier digital currency, the breaking of the resistances as seen on Trading View at $11,600, $12,000, and $12,400 respectively in the past 24 hours undeniably beat our expectations.

The BTC bull surge is bursting through the upper Bollinger Band and should this momentum be sustained, the BTC price which has also broken the 2020 record high set in early September may yet be on its way to push even further.

The RSI value of BTC at the time of writing is 87.26 showing that the coin is several points away from the 70 points overbought region. The Awesome Oscillator is also remarkably topped off the zero point line and which indicates the price could continue rising in the short-term at least.

As volatility is prevalent in the cryptosphere, there may be a fundamental disruption to the ambitious run of BTC but should future anticipated events including the stimulus fiasco turn out positive Bitcoin may be on its way to beating its all-time price high of $20 089 set on December 17, 2017.

US Election 2020: Can I Change My Vote?

As the United States 2020 election day approaches, a large number of US citizens have already cast their votes by mail due to the COVID-19 pandemic precautions. But what if these early voters decided they wanted to change their vote before Election Day?

In the lead up to one of the most divisive US elections in history it has been reported that as of Nov.1, just two days before Election Day, 91 million Americans have already cast their ballots.

But what if some of the early US voters have had a change of a heart and want to change their votes? Is it possible to do so before Election Day?

The answer is simply no for the current voting process in the US election, but what if the ballots were cast using blockchain?

Blockchain in Elections

When considering the application of a blockchain voting system for the nation-wide election, there are two major concerns—first is preserving the anonymity of voters, and the second one is low cost for high transparency. As a result, we could not simply allow voters to choose an option and submit it to the blockchain, as anyone could trace the identity of the voter and their selection by monitoring the transaction of the address.

What if we make use of the Homomorphic Encryption?

Homomorphic encryption can be used for privacy-preserving outsourced storage and computation. This allows data to be encrypted and out-sourced to commercial cloud environments for processing, all while encrypted.

Homomorphic Encryption can be used to do the summation or production of messages by the public keys and encrypted messages themselves.

Let say a vote counter is represented by an encrypted number. if a person voted, a number of 1 or -1 will be encrypted and store in blockchain. Using this system, if the voter wanted to alter their vote, it could be done by the production of the existing vote with an encrypted number -1 using Homomorphic Encryption. No one will be able to know who is voting for which candidate. In addition, the government authority would receive the summation of voted and get the election result rapidly.

To make sure the voting record would not be leaked after the election is completed, the secure deletion of the private key held by the election authority is required. Just simply encrypt the key and drop the private key. The private key could never be recovered after the above operations, preserving the privacy of the voter’s choice.

While the debate has raged between the Trump administration and the Democrats on the potential fraud of mail-in votes, maintaining voter identity, and the speed at which the results are counted and calculated—leveraging blockchain and encryption could expedite and enhance the electoral process as well as maintain the voters’ anonymity and create transparency in the voting system.

References:

Craig Gentry, “Fully homomorphic encryption using ideal lattices, Symposium on the Theory of Computing”, STOC, 2009, pp. 169-178.

Yang Tang, Patrick P. C. Lee, John C. S. Lui, and Radia Perlman, “FADE: Secure Overlay Cloud Storage with File Assured Deletion.”, SecureComm 2010, Singapore, September 2010.

Bitcoin Price Surges to 2020 High of $15,960, MicroStrategy Sees $182 Million Increase

The Bitcoin price reached a new high for 2020 gaining over 12% in the last 24 hrs to reach $15,960 with many analysts predicting that the surge is set to continue to $17,000.

Over the last 24 hours, the price of Bitcoin (BTC) has surged by 12% and smashed through the $15,000 resistance for the first time since January 2018. The price of $15,960 is a new high for the year.

Source: Trading View BTC/USDT

According to data from Trading View, the BTC/USD pair has gained over $1800 dollars and 12.86% in the last 24 hours. According to crypto data analytics platform Messari, Bitcoin has now managed to stay above the $15,000 support for 20 days of its life-cycle, roughly 0.4% of its life.

Grayscale CEO Barry Silbert, whose firm’s AUM is rising rapidly triumphantly reported on Twitter:

“People will never again say Bitcoin is dead.”

MicroStrategy is now looking like geniuses to the rest of the world after choosing Bitcoin as its reserve asset. As reported by MicroStrategy Bitcoin tracker on Twitter, the intelligence firm is up by $182 million dollar in the last 24 Hours—their original investment of $425 million in BTC is now valued at $607,639,500.

Bitcoin’s bullish behavior has been rampant in the lead up to the US elections and the prevailing uncertainty. While US presidential candidate Joe Biden is just six electoral votes away from victory, with officials continuing to count ballots in Georgia, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Arizona, and Nevada. Head of Research at Blockchain.com and top UK economist Dr. Garrick Hileman told Blockchain.News that the prevailing uncertainty is one of the forces behind BTC’s continued bull run. He said:

“Anything that negatively impacts the perception of a safe and stable dollar will likely boost interest in bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.”

BTC is also surging amid the news the US Department of Justice has seized more than $1 billion dollars from an anonymous hack who managed to crack a wallet connected with the infamous silk road.

For now, the BTC price surge appears set to continue with may analyst predicting we should reach $17,000 in the next few days, but get ready for some extreme volatility as the markets continue to watch the election results.

US Elections Need Blockchain: What Happened with the QFS Conspiracy and Voter Fraud Claims

The US presidential election has come to an end, as Biden has become the new president-elect. The 2020 presidential election has been rather complicated, as a portion of the ballots collected was done through mail-in ballots, as President Donald Trump has reiterated his stance on voter fraud.

Since the election results were announced, Trump has raised claims about voter fraud and has ignited a new theory, that the US Postal Service (USPS) has mislabeled mail-in ballots. This theory was promoted by James O’Keefe, a conservative political activist, who tweeted out alleged whistleblowers from the post offices in Michigan and Pennsylvania, who said there were fraudulent ballots.

O’Keefe claimed that the post office has been stamping fraudulent postmarks onto the ballots that were picked up after Election Day, Nov. 3. O’Keefe’s edited videos have attracted many Trump supporters, and suggest that Joe Biden’s leads in the two states were fraudulent.

John McAfee hints at election fraud from Spanish prison

John McAfee, who is now in a Spanish prison after being indicted for tax evasion and fraudulently promoting initial coin offerings (ICOs) on Twitter, has made comments regarding the US presidential election. McAfee tweeted:

“If you dont know what you don’t know, you will never look for it. I promise you, there is much you don’t know about this election.”

He added:

“Government bureaucrats, can store documents, modify them, erase them, or, if it suits them, create them out of thin air. Do not forget that votes are documents.”

The blockchain watermark conspiracy theory: QFS blockchain

In the past few days, a new blockchain conspiracy theory has been birthed, as intelligence expert Steve Pieczenik said that the 2020 election was a “sophisticated sting operation” to trap the Democratic party and the Biden campaign in criminal fraud. Appearing exclusively on The War Room via a banned video link, Pieczenik said that the whole operation was to catch the Democrats “stealing the election.”

It is important to note that these claims have not been verified by any sources, below are the claims that Pieczenik has made about voter fraud, as further investigation is ongoing.

According to this theory, Pieczenik claims that the ballots used in the election were printed by the Department of Homeland Security and that every legitimate ballot was watermarked with QFS blockchain encryption codes. QFS stands for Quantum Financial System which was allegedly used by the Trump administration to differentiate between the original ballots and the “fraudulent” ballots.

Blockchain was allegedly used as the technology for the storage layer for the process.

Charles Hoskinson: Conspiracy theory unlikely but local fraud can occur

Charles Hoskinson, the CEO of IOHK and the founder of the Cardano blockchain recently explained the QFS blockchain conspiracy in two videos, explaining the illegitimacy of the theory, highlighting that the intelligence community and the FBI would have to be involved as well.

Hoskinson questioned why the National guard would be involved, as this authority sector usually deals with security with borders and other countries, rather than within the United States. The Cardano founder added that there are many issues with the current ballots, and if people were dishonest, local fraud can occur. Hoskinson explained:

“That local fraud can work in both directions. Some people are fraudulent for the Republicans, some people are fraudulent for the Democrats. It tends to balance out statistically. It tends to be very small.”

Hoskinson further commented on the conspiracy, and its creator, Pieczenik, saying that he has “apparently gone from a doctor to a fiction writer.” He believes that the far more likely outcome of the election was that no president has ever been re-elected during a Depression-level economy. In conclusion, Hoskinson believes that due to a lack of desire to accept the election outcome as is, people would rather believe in water-marked ballots on the blockchain instead of simply the fact that Biden has won.

He further backs up his beliefs as he added that there was no clear explanation of how the water-market ballots on blockchain were done, and who exactly was responsible for the whole operation.

Ironically enough, a blockchain patent was presented by the USPS

The US Patent and Trademark Office presented the USPS’ official patent application, dubbed the “Secure Voting System,” which leverages blockchain technology to securitize the voting process and transmit the incoming ballots more efficiently and quickly.

Trump complained about the patent brought forward by USPS by saying that with a blockchain-leveraged voting system, there would be no confirmation and way to verify whether the voter inscribed on the ballot was actually the one casting the vote. Also, he said that after the ballot was sent, there would be no way to know whether the ballot was tampered with.

A blockchain voting system

Although a blockchain voting system may sound difficult to understand, the USPS did patent the system for a reason. Blockchain can provide security to a voter’s identity, in contrast to Trump’s concern. With most cryptocurrency transactions, a user’s private key is used to ensure that the transaction is not fraudulent, and is indeed made by the user.

Blockchain technology can further ensure the identification of the voter, and even track the mail-in ballots, which can be stored on its network. Furthermore, blockchain could even remove the need for mail-in ballots for efficiency for vote count, which was obviously a setback in the 2020 presidential election.

However, blockchain technology may still be quite nascent at the moment, as Russia’s e-voting via blockchain was attacked, hindering security issues within the network. The presidential election has invited a large range of disputes over the results, which could potentially be solved by blockchain technology, with its innate transparency and immutability functions.

Overall, the 2020 presidential election has accelerated the education and adoption of blockchain technology, which could act as a tool for removing the need for trust, and social structure.