Blockchain E-voting System and Governance: The Case of Korean National Pension Service

Hae Jin Chung

Abstract


Blockchain technology prevents tampering of central authorities that manage voting process, enhancing trust in the vote results. This technology enables citizens to participate more directly in the areas where delegation was inevitable due to the difficulties in polling fair and trustworthy public opinions. There are many projects around the world proposing to implement voting system for public decision making using blockchain technology. The blockchain voting system is expected to work as a transparent and fair channel for polling public opinions, which will transform the public decision-making process and governance. Korean National Pension Service (NPS) recently introduced stewardship code to better represent the interest of beneficiaries. However, because of the mistrust in governance of NPS, introduction of stewardship code is facing criticism for potential misuse of their voting rights against the interest of beneficiaries and for government’s interference with corporate management. This study proposes a voting system applying blockchain technology for polling the opinions of National Pension Fund’s beneficiaries to support public decision-making, and discusses social and institutional conditions for implementation of the proposed system.


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References


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