Voting

This is a repository for voting software built using Choice Coin on the Algorand Network. Our voting software is centered around Decentralized Decisions, an open-source voting software that allows organizations to make decisions in a distributed manner. The votes in Decentralized Decisions are recorded on the Algorand Blockchain and are tabulated using a stateless smart contract. Post-quantum cryptography ensures that voter information is kept secure throughout the entire process at all points of vulnerability. This repository is meant to facilitate open-development on the Choice Coin Platform and to serve as a starting point for developers looking to set up their own decentralized voting network. Development here can directly be used for Choice Coin's Developer Awards Program. Developers should follow the instructions below to get started. We are looking forward to seeing all the great innovations that will come out of our community!

OSS Rewards for Contributions

There are two OSS reward structures for contributions, the Gold Badge and the Silver Badge. The Silver Badge rewards substantial contributions to the Voting Repository on the Choice Coin GitHub. The Gold Badge rewards deployment of the Decentralized Decisions software for real world use cases. The Gold_Badges and Silver_Badges folders include contributions from reward winners. As of November 19, 2021 11 Gold Badges have been awarded and the program is currently closed, but may open again in the future. Silver Badge awards are still available.

Choice Coin Participation: https://choice-coin.com/participation.html

Developer Docs: https://choice-coin.gitbook.io/choice-coin-docs/getting-started/introduction

Gold Badge Information: https://forum.algorand.org/t/choice-coin-gold-badge/4817

Dependencies

• To run the code in the Choice_Coin_Voting Folder, you first must have Python installed. Please download the latest version of Python, and create a virtual environment specifically for this directory. Python Download: https://www.python.org/downloads/.
• Second, your Python virtual environment must have all of the packages listed in the requirements.txt file, which is also found in the Choice_Coin_Voting folder.
• Decentralized Decisions now runs sqlite instead of SQL.

Voting Tutorial

For an easy startup, check the Voting_Tutorial folder for a step by step guide to getting started building voting software with Choice Coin on Algorand.

Demo Run Steps

• To run the code found in the Choice_Coin_Voting folder, make sure to first download the dependencies as described above using pip.
• Run the sqlite.py function on Python Terminal with the virtual environment activated. Then, be sure that a new database called "voters.db" has been created.
• First, make sure that you have an account with an adequate amount of Choice Coin. This will be used as the escrow account that contains the Choice Coin that is used for voting. It will also send this Choice Coin to the appropriate decision address as dictated by individual voters. Put the accounts' address and mnemonic under escrow_address and escrow_mnemonic in the vote.py file.
• Furthermore, connect to the Algorand Network through a service such as the PureStake API or the Algorand Sandbox, the code was tested using the PureStake API, and assign your new address and token to algod_address and algod_token respectively in the vote.py file.
• Configure the keys in index.py based on your own administrative key. Then, enter in the string that you want to be the main administrator key, which will be hashed by the SHA-512.
• To do this manually through the SHA-512 hashing algorithm in the code, open a new python terminal in this directory with the virtual environment activated. Import hashing from vote, and simply run hashing with your secret key as the input. Assign this to the keys in index.py.
• Edit the number of decisions based on your preference. To do this, make a new address for the decision, make sure that it is opted into the Choice Coin asset, and add it at each of the appropriate spots in the code files based on the instructions provided in the documentation. Be sure to adjust the code at every juncture necessary to get the best results.
• Specifically, edit the vote.py file, the index.py, and the vote.html files according to the instructions in the files. The instructions are written as comments at the top of each respective file.
• This protocol also supports corporate or organizational voting. To add additional decisions, follow the same steps as above, except editing the functions and files with corporate in the name.
• Create a new MySQL database with the appropriate credentials as described in the SQL_Code.sql file. Be sure to enter in your MySQL credentials at the appropriate points at lines 15-20 in index.py. Specifically, create a new MySQL user with root privileges that can easily access and change the database.
• Finally, to test as a web application, use the command python index.py in a regular terminal with the virtual environment configured. This will launch a web-application that you can interact with.
• To learn more about the web application, watch the Demo Video here: https://youtu.be/DWXNGDYXnIM.