Voting system to prevent fraud using blockchain technology

1. A data processing machine comprising:

at least one processor; and

at least one non-transitory storage medium comprising instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to perform operations comprising:

initializing a blockchain with a genesis block, the genesis block comprising an initial data set and a genesis block hash value;

creating a data structure comprising a secondary data set including a new data set and a hash value of a preceding block;

determining a new block hash value of the data structure;

appending a new block comprising the data structure and the new block hash value to the blockchain; and

storing an aggregation of data in at least one data set on the blockchain.

2. The data processing machine of claim 1 , wherein

the operations further comprise:

facilitating printing of a receipt, wherein the new block hash value is included on the receipt.

3. The data processing machine of claim 1 , wherein at least one block of the blockchain comprises at least one of:

an IP address;

a MAC address;

a machine identifier;

an operator identifier;

a geographic location; or

a software version.

4. The data processing machine of claim 1 , wherein at least one block of the blockchain comprises at least one of:

an error message; or

an access log.

5. The data processing machine of claim 1 , wherein the operations further comprise:

receiving a signal comprising the new data set from a message sent via a smartphone app.

6. The data processing machine of claim 1 , wherein the operations further comprise:

determining an aggregate of a plurality of votes recorded on the blockchain;

creating a data structure comprising the aggregate; and

appending a revelations block to the blockchain, the revelations block comprising the aggregate.

7. The data processing machine of claim 6 , wherein the operations further comprise:

halting addition of an additional block to the blockchain in response to determining that the revelations block is present on the blockchain.

8. The data processing machine of claim 1 , wherein the operations further comprise:

exporting a copy of the blockchain for processing by another machine.

9. The data processing machine of claim 8 , wherein the operations further comprise:

encrypting the copy prior to exporting.

10. The data processing machine of claim 1 , wherein the secondary data set includes information used to identify a provisional ballot, and the operations further comprise:

sanitizing the secondary data set by deleting the information.

11. The data processing machine of claim 1 , wherein the operations further comprise:

receiving a scanned representation of a paper ballot;

determining the vote based on the scanned representation;

determining an image based on the scanned representation;

determining a digital representation of the image; and

including the digital representation in the secondary data set.

12. A method comprising:

initializing a blockchain with a genesis block, the genesis block comprising an initial data set and a genesis block hash value;

iteratively, for each of a plurality of transactions, each transaction comprising a vote:

receiving a signal representing a transaction;

creating a data structure comprising the transaction and a hash value of a preceding block;

determining a new block hash value of the data structure;

appending a new block comprising the data structure and the new block hash value to the blockchain;

receiving a termination signal;

determining an aggregate value of the plurality of transactions recorded in the blockchain;

creating a final data structure comprising the aggregate value; and

storing a revelations block on the blockchain, the revelations block comprising the final data structure.

13. The method of claim 12 , further comprising:

transferring the blockchain; and

creating a master blockchain by iteratively:

selecting a block from a subsidiary blockchain;

extracting data from the block;

creating a new master blockchain block comprising the data;

determining a new master blockchain block hash value of the data; and

appending the new master blockchain block to the master blockchain.

14. The method of claim 13 , wherein selecting the block from the subsidiary blockchain comprises selecting a respective revelations block corresponding to each respective subsidiary blockchain.

15. The method of claim 12 , further comprising:

calculating a first transaction rate, the first transaction rate representing a volume of transactions for one option of a category over a preceding first set of transactions;

calculating a second transaction rate, the second transaction rate representing a volume of transactions for one option of a category over a preceding second set of votes, the second set of votes comprising the first set of votes; and

setting a hashing difficulty to be proportional to a difference between the first transaction rate and the second transaction rate, the hashing difficulty being a requirement that a first N characters of a new block hash value match a sequence.

16. The method of claim 15 , wherein the hashing difficulty is further based on a transaction rate representing a number of transactions during a preceding time period.

17. The method of claim 12 , wherein receiving a signal representing a transaction comprises receiving a message corresponding to the transaction via a smartphone app.

18. The method of claim 12 , wherein the blockchain is disseminated to a plurality of user devices.

19. The method of claim 18 , wherein the blockchain is encrypted before dissemination.

20. The method of claim 12 , further comprising:

providing a receipt to a source of each transaction, the receipt comprising a respective hash value corresponding to each respective transaction.