Dominik Meißner, Frank Kargl, Benjamin Erb, Felix Engelmann
Taking part in surveys, experiments, and studies is often compensated by rewards to increase the number of participants and encourage attendance. While privacy requirements are usually considered for participation, privacy aspects of the reward procedure are mostly ignored. To this end, we introduce PrePaMS, an efficient participation management system that supports prerequisite checks and participation rewards in a privacy-preserving way. Our system organizes participations with potential (dis-)qualifying dependencies and enables secure reward payoffs. By leveraging a set of proven cryptographic primitives and mechanisms such as anonymous credentials and zero-knowledge proofs, participations are protected so that service providers and organizers cannot derive the identity of participants even within the reward process. In this paper, we have designed and implemented a prototype of PrePaMS to show its effectiveness and evaluated its performance under realistic workloads. PrePaMS covers the information whether subjects have participated in surveys, experiments, or studies. When combined with other secure solutions for the actual data collection within these events, PrePaMS can represent a cornerstone for more privacy-preserving empirical research.
Thiago Dias Monteiro, Otavio Próspero Sanchez, Gustavo Hermínio Salati Marcondes de Moraes
Purpose The current scenario shows increased adoption of off-chain voting applications in decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) to avoid complexity and costs for user engagement in their governance. This paper aims to comprehend the trends and patterns within the DAO community with off-chain voting systems and blockchain usage. Design/methodology/approach This exploratory study uses a two-pronged quantitative approach, combining descriptive statistical analysis and fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis. Input data from different DAO proposals and votes were analyzed. Findings Results indicate that the 179 DAOs analyzed account for 26,538 proposals and 1,268,474 followers of the entire Snapshot base in January 2023, showing high concentration in engagement. The preferred social media communication channels are Twitter and GitHub, showing a decrease of Ethereum as a main chain, with Polygon and Binance Smart Chain already accounting for 22%. Basic voting can lead to greater user involvement in the voting process. Research limitations/implications This study complements the traditional governance theory perspective and advances in the emerging literature on DAOs and blockchain with an empirical analysis. Practical implications As blockchain technology gains increasing adoption, comprehending trends and patterns within the DAO community becomes pivotal in identifying opportunities and challenges for innovation and improvement. Social implications Findings can facilitate the development of improved governance models and decision-making processes for DAOs, leading to a more robust and sustainable ecosystem. Originality/value This study presents a broader IT-based governance foresight via blockchain while providing an understanding of the voting process, technology features and governance mechanisms for social community engagement and decision-making in DAOs.
On 30 April, Regulation (EU) 2024/1183 amending Regulation (EU) 910/2014 as regards establishing the European Digital Identity Framework, known as eIDAS 2.0, was published in the Official Journal of the European Union. This amendment introduces zero-knowledge proof (ZKP) privacy-enhancing technologies to support two key innovations: the European Digital Identity Wallet (EUDIW) and the electronic attestations of attributes ((Q)EAA). In parallel, the European Digital Identity Wallet Architecture and Reference Framework (EUDIW ARF) provide a common set of standards and best practices for the technical implementation of eIDAS 2.0. This paper analyses how the EUDIW can rely on ZKPs since neither the eIDAS 2.0 Regulation nor the EUDIW ARF does so. We propose a software product regime for the cryptographic derivation of data in a ZKP format through three mutually compatible regulatory options: zero-knowledge issuance by default through the EUDIW, through a software product extension of the EUDIW, or a private standalone wallet. These schemes provide the legal basis for the secure use of ZKPs, ensure effective compliance with the GDPR, and contribute to the debate on the value that electronic ledgers introduced by eIDAS 2.0 bring to digital identity.
Roberto A. Pava-Díaz, Jesús Gil-Ruiz, Danilo Alfonso López-Sarmiento
Self-sovereign identity (SSI) embodies the fundamental human right to own and control a digital identity that grants access to public, social, and financial services. The absence of a dedicated digital identity layer in the development of the Internet has rendered SSI a significant challenge in contemporary society. Blockchain technology emerges as a promising solution by enabling the creation of decentralized and automatically verifiable identities. This study contextualizes SSI and analyzes how blockchain technology facilitates the autonomous management of digital identities. It explores nine prominent frameworks in this field—Sovrin, uPort, Jolocom, ShoCard, Litentry, Civic, KILT, Idena, and ION—highlighting their features, functionalities, and compliance with digital identity principles. The research concludes by identifying the challenges and opportunities in implementing these systems for digital identity management, thus contributing to the advancement of this emerging field.
Ibrahim Mutambik, Abdullah Almuqrin, Zuopeng Zhang, Zahyah H. Alharbi
Although cryptocurrencies are not yet widely used as a method of payment in retail and commercial transactions, they are attracting a growing level of interest. However, if cryptocurrencies are to attract mass adoption for settlement, they will need to have merchant and consumer trust. This paper examines the factors which contribute to the development of trust, and whether the perception of trust varies between cultures (Arab and non-Arab). To explore this, the study analysed, using multigroup partial least squares analysis, 729 survey responses. The analysis examined the impact of four factors on perceived trust in cryptocurrency payments, and found that the perception of information confidentiality, identifiability and traceability all have a significant effect, while perceptions of fraud vulnerability had very little impact. There were also clear socio-cultural effects. This research offers significant insights into the trust dynamics essential for the acceptance of crypto-payment-services and highlights the importance of culture perspectives.
Differential Privacy (DP) stands as a secure and efficient mechanism for privacy preservation, offering enhanced data utility without compromising computational complexity. Its adaptability is evidenced by its integration into blockchain-based Internet of Things (IoT) contexts, including smart wearables, smart homes, etc. Nevertheless, a notable vulnerability surfaces in decentralized environments where existing DP mechanisms falter in withstanding collusion attacks. This vulnerability stems from the absence of an efficient strategy to synchronize the privacy budget consumption and historical query information among all network participants. Adversaries can exploit this weakness, collaborating to inject a substantial volume of queries simultaneously into disparate blockchain nodes to extract more precise results. To address this issue, we propose a novel dual response DP mechanism to preserve privacy in blockchain-based IoT scenarios. It encompasses both direct and indirect response strategies, enabling an adaptive response to external queries, aiming to provide better data utility while preserving privacy. Additionally, this mechanism can synchronize historical query information and privacy budget consumption within the blockchain network to prevent privacy leakage. We employ Relative Error (RE), Mean Square Error (MSE), and privacy budget consumption as evaluation metrics to measure the performance of the proposed mechanism. Experimental outcomes substantiate that the proposed mechanism can adapt to blockchain networks well, affirming its capacity for privacy and great utility.
Manuel J. Fernández Iglesias, Christian Delgado‐von‐Eitzen, Luis Anido
The growing importance of traceability in supply chains requires robust, transparent, and efficient systems to ensure the integrity and authenticity of product journeys. This paper presents a comprehensive characterisation and data model for a generic blockchain-based traceability system, highlighting its implementation using smart contracts on Ethereum-compatible networks, as the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM), with its pioneering implementation of smart contracts and its extensive ecosystem; it provides a robust environment for developing decentralised applications. We discuss the advantages of using blockchain technology to notarise traceability activities, ensuring immutability and transparency by exploring two main scenarios, namely one where hash keys (i.e, cryptographic digests) are stored on-chain while detailed data remain off-chain, and another where all traceability data are fully stored on-chain. Each approach is evaluated for its impact on scalability, privacy, storage efficiency, and operational costs. The hash key method offers significant advantages in reducing blockchain storage costs, enhancing privacy, and maintaining data integrity, but it depends on reliable off-chain storage. Conversely, the full on-chain approach guarantees data immutability but at a higher cost and lower scalability. By combining these strategies, a balanced solution can be achieved, leveraging the strengths of both methods to provide a reliable, efficient, and secure blockchain-based traceability system, which is illustrated with a practical implementation to support traceability in the timber sector in Galicia, Spain. This paper aims to provide valuable insights for researchers and practitioners looking to implement or enhance traceability systems using blockchain technology, demonstrating how smart contracts can be effectively utilised to meet the demanding requirements of modern supply chains.
Laura Ricci, Barbara Guidi, Andrea Michienzi, Andrea Tagarelli · 5 authors
Web3 describes the next generation of the Internet, built on top of various technologies, such as Blockchain Technology, Semantic Web, etc. Web3 proposal claims a vision of the Internet that can cut the intermediation of Big tech companies by completely decentralizing the web through blockchain technology, which enables the integration of cryptocurrencies and tokens in many social media platforms, currently referred to as Blockchain Online Social Media (BOSMs) platforms. These give the possibility both to reward users for their social actions and to define Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs), digital assets representing real-world objects like art, collectibles, music, game items, videos, and even tickets creating a new form of decentralized finance, called Social Finance (SocialFi). BOSMs give users the possibility to monetize and tokenize their social influence, and they act as the common ground for the sale or transfer of NFTs. In this paper, we propose an overview of AWESOME, a framework for advanced analysis of Web3 BOSMs, specifically conceived to suit their nature based on intertwined and stratified social and economic contexts. We highlight the characteristics of the framework by describing the objectives and we present the preliminary results. Furthermore, the paper proposes a classification of current Web3 BOSMs, which improves the literature by taking into account the changes and the new applications of Web3 Social Media, which now include Virtual Worlds and Gaming platforms.
This paper presents an innovative Web 3.0 authentication technique, designed for a user-centric internet environment. Addressing the rising demand for authentication techniques suitable for Web 3.0, it defines the essential features of such systems and introduces a new approach using smart contracts. This approach utilizes mother and child tokens in conjunction with the lock smart contract to ensure secure authentication. The approach is thoroughly tested against various security threats, including man-in-the-middle, replay, and brute-force attacks, and its practicality is evaluated on Ethereum-based networks.
Crowd-sensing has emerged as a powerful data retrieval model, enabling diverse applications by leveraging active user participation. However, data availability and privacy concerns pose significant challenges. Traditional methods like data encryption and anonymization, while essential, may not fully address these issues. For instance, in sparsely populated areas, anonymized data can still be traced back to individual users. Additionally, the volume of data generated by users can reveal their identities. To develop credible crowd-sensing systems, data must be anonymized, aggregated and separated into uniformly sized chunks. Furthermore, decentralizing the data management process, rather than relying on a single server, can enhance security and trust. This paper proposes a system utilizing smart contracts and blockchain technologies to manage crowd-sensing campaigns. The smart contract handles user subscriptions, data encryption, and decentralized storage, creating a secure data marketplace. Incentive policies within the smart contract encourage user participation and data diversity. Simulation results confirm the system's viability, highlighting the importance of user participation for data credibility and the impact of geographical data scarcity on rewards. This approach aims to balance data origin and reduce cheating risks.
The evolution of mobile technology has produced new methods and policies for organisations to process data and communicate. Bring your own device (BYOD), which allows employees to bring their own personal devices to work and access organisational resources for work purposes, is one such new policy. However, as this practice poses significant risks, organisations must implement commensurate security measures to protect their integrity. This paper aimed to mitigate these risks by proposing a decentralized and unassailable security control solution tailored to the BYOD environment. The proposed architecture leveraged business blockchain with smart contracts (SCs) to automate policy compliance and strictly adhere to organisational rules and regulations. The research demonstrated that this approach effectively reduces access control (AC) threats and enhances security policies and management. The findings highlighted that the implementation of SCs within a blockchain framework significantly improves the security of the BYOD environment by minimising the risks of unauthorised access, data breaches, and insider threats. Additionally, SCs enable organisations to establish decentralised and tamper-proof security control systems, reducing the dependence on centralised authorities and bolstering overall system integrity.
In the increasingly digitized world, the privacy and security of sensitive data shared via IoT devices are paramount. Traditional privacy-preserving methods like k-anonymity and l-diversity are becoming outdated due to technological advancements. In addition, data owners often worry about misuse and unauthorized access to their personal information. To address this, we propose a secure data-sharing framework that uses local differential privacy (LDP) within a permissioned blockchain, enhanced by federated learning (FL) in a zero-trust environment. To further protect sensitive data shared by IoT devices, we use the Interplanetary File System (IPFS) and cryptographic hash functions to create unique digital fingerprints for files. We mainly evaluate our system based on latency, throughput, privacy accuracy, and transaction efficiency, comparing the performance to a benchmark model. The experimental results show that the proposed system outperforms its counterpart in terms of latency, throughput, and transaction efficiency. The proposed model achieved a lower average latency of 4.0 seconds compared to the benchmark model’s 5.3 seconds. In terms of throughput, the proposed model achieved a higher throughput of 10.53 TPS (transactions per second) compared to the benchmark model’s 8 TPS. Furthermore, the proposed system achieves 85% accuracy, whereas the counterpart achieves only 49%.
Cryptocurrencies’ popularity is growing despite short-term fluctuations. Peer-reviewed research into trust in cryptocurrency payments started in 2014. While the model created then, is based on proven theories from psychology and supported by empirical research, a-lot has changed in the past 10 years. This research finds that the original model is still valid, but it is extended to capture the current situation better. A quantitative methodology is used to validate the updated model proposed. The results from the quantitative survey show that (1) personal innovativeness in technology and (2) finance, influence (3) disposition to trust. Disposition to trust influences six variables from the specific context of the payment. Three variables related to the cryptocurrency itself are (4) stability in the value, (5) transaction fees, and (6) reputation. Institutional trust is influenced by (7) regulation, and (8) payment intermediaries. The last contextual factor is (9) trust in the retailer. The six variables from the context influence (10) trust in the payment which, finally, influences (11) the likelihood of making the cryptocurrency payment.
Blockchain technology provides a technical solution for the challenges faced by e-government, such as low efficiency, excessive energy consumption, and lack of trust mechanisms. It can promote the establishment of a more efficient and high-quality government service system, thereby enhancing the public trust of the government. Although blockchain technology provides theoretical innovation to traditional governance structures with its decentralization, consensus mechanisms, and enhanced trust, its impact and ability to transform existing governance structures still have limitations in practical applications. Based on an in-depth analysis of the concept and application boundaries of blockchain, this article explores its value in the field of e-government. At the same time, it systematically proposes strategic suggestions to promote the development of blockchain technology in the field of e-government from multiple aspects such as institutional construction, technical standardization, and professional talent cultivation, in response to its limitations and application risks. By accelerating technology research and development and standard construction, strengthening high-level promotion, optimizing promotion competition mechanisms, and conducting rooted research, the application and promotion of blockchain in government governance can be accelerated, laying a solid foundation for building a future intelligent and transparent government service model.
Richard Richard, Muhammad Ammar Marsuki, Gading Aryo Pamungkas, Felix Irwanto
The surge in cryptocurrency usage has increased reliance on cryptocurrency wallet applications. However, the usability, security, and feature richness of crypto wallets require significant enhancements. This research aims to identify critical factors that should guide the future design of mobile cryptocurrency wallets. The first step was to collect user reviews on several popular crypto wallets as the dataset. A total of 5,466 mobile wallet-related reviews from mobile application stores were filtered and analyzed. A machine-learning approach was used to cluster the user reviews. The analysis shows that customer issues are divided into four main themes: domain-specific challenges, security and privacy concerns, misconceptions, and trust issues. A software process assessment was also conducted to examine the current state of crypto wallets in terms of security, usability, and feature richness. Around 21 crypto wallet platforms were explored and assessed. Based on the thematic analysis and software process assessment, feature recommendations are proposed to address these shortcomings and enhance the credibility of mobile cryptocurrency wallets.
Federated Learning (FL) is a technique in the field of machine learning that prioritizes privacy by allowing collaborative model training without revealing data. This article explores the basics of FL and its importance in protecting data privacy in sectors such as healthcare, finance, and industrial engineering. By using data sources FL enables the development of strong and adaptable AI models without centralizing sensitive information. We delve into the methodologies behind FL including secure multiparty computation, differential privacy, and homomorphic encryption. Additionally, we look at the ways FL is used, such as speeding up medical research improving financial security and streamlining industrial processes. The challenges related to FL - like communication diverse data distributions and scalability - are also addressed. Lastly, we discuss trends, in FL that focus on enhancing privacy techniques and complying with regulations. This thorough overview highlights how FL can revolutionize AI advancement while upholding privacy standards. Keywords: Federated Learning, Privacy Preservation, Decentralized Machine Learning, Secure Multiparty Computation, Differential Privacy, Healthcare AI, Industrial Engineering, Data Silos, Collaborative Learning.
Digitalization has far-reaching yet under-researched impacts on state–society relations. This article addresses this gap and explores digitalization as a driver of change to social contracts. The conceptual framework explains how it changes (a) the state’s duty to grant protection, provision, and participation in exchange for legitimacy; (b) the modes of state–society interaction; and (c) the contracting parties with respect to their location and their relative power position. Based on a literature review and recent developments in digitalization, the article then discusses how this plays out in the MENA region. It shows that digital surveillance by authoritarian regimes often dominates over the states’ duty to protect their citizens. Spaces for political participation increase through social media and online platforms but often fail to translate into ‘offline’ mobilization. Digitalization can improve public service provision, but only for digitally-connected citizens. Thus, digitalization tends to enhance the relative power positions of MENA states even if states themselves partly depend on external actors for access to and control over digital technologies. Overall, digitalization is an important, structural driver of change to social contracts but pre-existing state–society relations and governance framework conditions lead to either more inclusive or rather more authoritarian social contracts.
M. Albrecht, Matilda Backendal, Daniele Coppola, Kenneth G. Paterson
Nextcloud is a leading cloud storage platform with more than 20 million users. Nextcloud offers an end-to-end encryption (E2EE) feature that is claimed to be able “to keep extremely sensitive data fully secure even in case of a full server breach”. They also claim that the Nextcloud server “has Zero Knowledge, that is, never has access to any of the data or keys in unencrypted form”. This is achieved by having encryption and decryption operations that are done using file keys that are only available to Nextcloud clients, with those file keys being protected by a key hierarchy that ultimately relies on long passphrases known exclusively to the users. We provide the first detailed documentation and security analysis of Nextcloud's E2EE feature. Nextcloud's strong security claims motivate conducting the analysis in the setting where the server itself is considered malicious. We present three distinct attacks against the E2EE security guarantees in this setting. Each one enables the confidentiality and integrity of all user files to be compromised. All three attacks are fully practical and we have built proof-of-concept implementations for each. The vulnerabilities make it trivial for a malicious Nextcloud server to access and manipulate users' data. We have responsibly disclosed the three vulnerabilities to N extcloud. The second and third vulnerabilities have been remediated. The first was addressed by temporarily disabling file sharing from the E2EE feature until a redesign of the feature can be made. We reflect on broader lessons that can be learned for designers of E2EE systems.
Blockchain’s decentralization, transparency, and tamper‐resistance are celebrated properties for auditability and trust, yet they collide with core data protection duties under the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). This manuscript analyzes the principal compliance challenges that arise when blockchain processes personal data and proposes a practical, design-oriented framework to address them. First, we synthesize legal and regulatory positions on what counts as “personal data,” the difference between anonymization and pseudonymization, and the implications of the right to erasure, data protection by design and by default, allocation of controller/processor roles, and international data transfers. We then map these requirements to blockchain architectures (public permissionless, public permissioned, and private permissioned) and data patterns (on-chain, off-chain, hybrid). Building on recent guidance from the European Data Protection Board (EDPB) and national authorities, we outline concrete technical and governance controls—off-chain storage and on-chain commitments, keyed hashing, encryption/key-revocation strategies, chameleon-hash/redactable-ledger designs, selective-disclosure credentials/zero-knowledge proofs, and robust consortium governance—to reduce risk and improve demonstrable compliance. Applying a six-step assessment methodology to three realistic use cases (NFT profile registry, supply-chain provenance, and consortium KYC), we show that while no single pattern fully reconciles immutability with erasure, practicable combinations can align processing with GDPR’s principles of minimization, purpose limitation, storage limitation, and accountability. The paper concludes with a prioritized checklist for engineering “compliance-by-design” blockchains, and delineates scope and limitations for practitioners and researchers.
A. Bendada, Mouhamed Amine Bouchiha, Mourad Rabah, Yacine Ghamri-Doudane
Current blockchain-based reputation solutions for crowdsourcing fail to tackle the challenge of ensuring both efficiency and privacy without compromising the scalability of the block chain. Developing an effective, transparent, and privacy-preserving reputation model necessitates on-chain implementation using smart contracts. However, managing task evaluation and reputation updates alongside crowdsourcing transactions on-chain substantially strains system scalability and performance. This paper introduces RollupTheCrowd, a novel blockchain-powered crowdsourcing framework that leverages zkRollups to enhance system scalability while protecting user privacy. Our framework includes an effective and privacy-preserving reputation model that gauges workers' trustworthiness by assessing their crowdsourcing interactions. To alleviate the load on our blockchain, we employ an off-chain storage scheme, optimizing RollupTheCrowd's performance. Utilizing smart contracts and zero-knowledge proofs, our Rollup layer achieves a significant 20x reduction in gas consumption. To prove the feasibility of the proposed framework, we developed a proof-of-concept implementation using cutting-edge tools. The experimental results presented in this paper demonstrate the effectiveness and scalability of RollupTheCrowd, validating its potential for real-world application scenarios.
This research evaluates how blockchain technology transforms data security functions, especially regarding privacy protection. The rise of decentralized systems led to Blockchain emerging as an answer for resolving traditional data security problems from breaches to centralization risks. This research investigates blockchain technology, which advanced from its initial cryptocurrency framework into an all-encompassing data protection solution. Research shows that Blockchain improves privacy through encryption methods and distributed operations. A qualitative research approach enables examination of blockchain solutions with privacy components alongside analysis of zero-knowledge proofs and decentralized storage facilities. Technology solutions provide users with comprehensive data visibility and reduce exposure to unauthorized intruders and free them from central control systems. The adaptive security structure of blockchain technology functions as the industry-leading answer to privacy breaches by establishing strengthened data protection protocols for all operational activities.
Linda Weigl, Tamara Roth, Alexandre Amard, Liudmila Zavolokina
User-centricity in e-government is a double-edged sword. While it helps governments design digital services tailored to the needs of citizens, it may also increase the burden on users and deepen the digital divide. From an institutional perspective, these fundamental conflicts are inevitable. To better understand the role and effect of user-centricity in e-government, this paper analyses academic literature on user-centricity and public values. The analysis leads to three main insights: First, there is a conflict in citizen representation that may result from the normative dominance of decision-makers. Second, we identify an accountability conflict that can prevent user-centric innovation from thriving in a highly institutionalized environment. Third, we identify a pluralism conflict that emerges from a clash between the reality of a diverse society and the assumed homogeneity of actors. The need to address these conflicts increases with rapid technological innovation, such as distributed ledger technologies, artificial intelligence, and trust infrastructures. These technologies put the user at the center stage and permeate aspects of social life beyond government. In response to these insights, we outline suggestions for further research and practice.
Open access
E-Government and Public Services
Privacy, Security, and Data Protection
Innovative Approaches in Technology and Social Development
Gulshan Kumar, Rahul Saha, Manish Gupta, Tai-hoon Kim
The correctness and the true validated data in Human Resource Management (HRM) are important for organizations as the data plays an impactful role in recruiting, developing, and retaining a skilled workforce. On one hand, the validated data in an organization helps in recruiting legitimate skillful employees; on the other hand, keeping the employee's data safe and maintaining privacy laws such as compliance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is also an organization's responsibility. Besides, transparency in human resource management operations is crucial because it promotes trust and fairness within an organization. The present HRM systems are centralized in nature and their verifiable credential system is ineffective; this leads to the intentions of internal data sabotage or internal threats. Besides, the organizations' biases also become more prominent. In this paper, we address the above-mentioned problems with a blockchain framework for HRM to utilize the privacy of data access through a Privacy Information Retrieval (PIR) process. To be specific, our proposed framework called Blockchained piR of resOurces as humaN (BRON) , is the first blockchain framework to show an effective mechanism to access data from organizations globally without hampering privacy. BRON uses a generalized user registration process to use the services of data access and in the background, it uses Zero-Knowledge Proofs (ZKPs) for global verification and PIR for privacy-based data retrieval. More specifically, credential verification and ZKP-based PIR are the highlights of our proposed BRON. Another interesting aspect of BRON is the use of Proof-of-Authority (PoA) to validate the anonymity and unlinkability of any HR operation. Finally, BRON has also contributed with a smart contract to incentivize the employees. BRON is very generic and easily be customizable as per the HR requirements. We run a set of experiments on BRON and observe that it is successful in providing privacy-assured data access and decentralized human resource data management. Overall, BRON provides 30% reduced latency and 35% better throughput as compared to the existing blockchain solutions in the direction of HRM.
Abstract Online voting is gaining traction in contemporary society to reduce costs and boost voter turnout, allowing individuals to cast their ballots from anywhere with an internet connection. This innovation is cautiously met due to the inherent security risks, where a single vulnerability can lead to widespread vote manipulation. Blockchain technology has emerged as a promising solution to address these concerns and create a trustworthy electoral process. Blockchain offers a decentralized network of nodes that enhances transparency, security, and verifiability. Its distributed ledger and non‐repudiation features make it a compelling alternative to traditional electronic voting systems, ensuring the integrity of elections. To further bolster the security of online voting, we propose DemocracyGuard platform on the Ethereum blockchain, which incorporates facial recognition technology to authenticate voters. By leveraging these advancements, DemocracyGuard aims to provide a secure and resilient platform for online voting, paving the way for its broader adoption and revolutionizing the electoral landscape.