While the interest in online voting remains at the level it was during the pandemic lockdowns, anonymised statistics from Polys, a blockchain-based voting platform supported by Kaspersky, show that remote decision-making is gaining popularity among new groups of users.
Business-related voting has become the second most common type of poll held on the blockchain-based platform in 2022.
The number of online voting sessions skyrocketed in 2020, when restrictive measures forced people to study and work from home without the possibility of communicating in person. However, despite the massive return to workplaces, some aspects of remote interaction seem to have stayed.
Online joint decision-making is among these aspects: a comparison of the 2021 and 2022 Polys statistics* proves that the number of polls conducted remains at the same high level as during the pandemic.
However, researchers have observed several differences in the share and range of sectors organising and taking part in e-voting. While educational entities still lead, making up a 57% share of polls, business has become the second most active sector, representing 14% of all sessions, compared to 7% during the same period in 2021.
The platform’s users used polls to hold board elections, choose the nominations for and winners of corporate competitions, and resolve work-related questions, such as picking the best teambuilding activity, organising a conference or choosing a return to office date.
E-voting was also used to collect employee feedback on the company’s solutions and services, and for gathering opinions on how to improve products and features.
Among other changes over the last year, there has been a decrease in sessions among NGOs and governmental institutions, with activity almost halving.
The data also shows that blockchain-based voting is gaining attention from new audiences, such as the gaming community, who were not previously among Polys’ users.
Gamers commonly use the platform to elect guild commanders or best players and choose their team names.
“The fact that the number of voting sessions has remained at a consistently high level for a long time proves that our users perceive Polys not just as a temporary solution during lockdowns, but as a convenient and reliable tool for a diverse set of tasks,” comments Daniil Kaptsan, Head of Polys. “We will continue to develop our product to ensure its versatile usability without compromising on the confidentiality and security of voting”.
In 2022, Polys was listed among solid eDemocracy vendors in Digital Democracy Report by Solonian Digital Democracy Institute for the second year in a row.
Experts especially noted the solution for its extremely simple interface along with the ability to guarantee the secrecy of the poll while allowing voters to verify that their vote has not been manipulated.
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