In November 2024, Screven County, Georgia Became the First U.S. County to Use the Bitcoin Blockchain to Protect Election Records
Executive Summary
In November 2024, Screven County, Georgia made history by becoming the first U.S. county to use the Bitcoin blockchain technology to secure election results. Partnering with Simple Proof, the county successfully timestamped their election certification documents to the Bitcoin blockchain, creating an immutable record to protect against tampering and provide unprecedented transparency.
Key Results:
Immutability - Election results were permanently secured on the Bitcoin blockchain in a manner that no individual, company or bad actor can alter.
Quick deployment - Implementation completed in just one week.
Cost-effective - Affordable for even a small rural county with limited IT resources.
Scalable - Capable of securing all digital government records
Confidential - Screven County was also able to protect confidential, non-public information (voter roll lists).
The Challenge: Election Integrity in the Digital Age
Screven County faced the same challenges confronting election officials in most government institutions: ensuring public trust in digital records while protecting against sophisticated cyber threats. With increasing concerns about election security and data integrity, traditional methods of storing and transmitting election results were proving insufficient to guarantee that information cannot be changed by bad actors.
Vulnerability during data transmission - Once data leaves the government institution, there is little that can be done to ensure that it cannot be changed further downstream.
Limited IT resources - Small county election offices lack extensive cybersecurity infrastructure.
Public trust concerns - There’s a growing demand for verifiable, transparent election processes.
Future-proofing - As AI technology continues evolving at an accelerated pace, there is an urgent need to protect against future threats, such as AI manipulation and disinformation.
As Stacy Scott, Screven County Election Supervisor, explained: "One of her main goals was to make sure that everyone feels secure that their votes are counted."
The Solution: Bitcoin-Powered Election Security
Screven County implemented Simple Proof’s Immutable Proof Service to create permanent, tamper-proof records of the county’s election certification documents. The solution leverages Bitcoin's Timechain and the OpenTimestamps protocol to timestamp digital records with mathematical certainty.
How It Works:
Standard Election Process - Screven County conducted elections using their normal existing processes. Election officials generated standard certification documents and reports.
Secure Hashing - Using Simple Proof, Screven County’s documents were hashed with SHA-256 cryptographic functions.
Bitcoin Timestamping - Document hashes were anchored to the Bitcoin blockchain. The solution integrated smoothly with Screven County's existing infrastructure, with no changes to current processes.
Permanent Record - When proofs are confirmed on the blockchain, they become immediately available for public verification. Block 869,047 became the first block in Bitcoin's blockchain that contains official proof of a U.S. election.
New features - Besides protecting public election documents, Screven County also used Simple Proof to protect voter roll lists (that include Personally Identifiable Information - PII -) by generating hashes locally and creating proofs only for the hashes. Confidential information always remains in the custody of Screven County officials.
Results: Setting New Standards for Election Security
The deployment delivered immediate and lasting benefits for Screven County and established a new benchmark for election security nationwide.
Benefits
Tamper-evident public records - unauthorized changes to documents are easy to detect and do not require a centralized trusted party.
Protection for public officials - public officials can ensure that information produced during their tenure cannot be altered in the future.
Future-proof security - Protection against emerging threats including AI manipulation.
Rapid deployment - Full implementation in just one week.
Stakeholder Testimonials
Election Officials
"We didn't want to just implement technology for technology's sake. This gives us mathematical proof that our results haven't been tampered with, which is exactly what voters deserve." — Stacy Scott Mincey, Election Supervisor, Screven County
Technology Leadership
"Simple Proof is very useful for anchoring data onto a specific point in time by using the Bitcoin blockchain as a clock that no one controls. This new stack of protocols and tools enable anyone to prove that information is immutable in a trustless manner." — Carlos Toriello, CEO, Simple Proof
Conclusion: Pioneering Digital Truth
Screven County's pioneering implementation of Bitcoin-based election security represents more than a technological milestone—it demonstrates a new paradigm for digital trust. By choosing Simple Proof's solution, a small rural county with limited resources achieved a paradigm shift in security for their election records.
The success proves that advanced cryptographic security is no longer limited to large organizations with extensive IT departments. With Simple Proof's technology, any organization can implement permanent, tamper-proof record keeping quickly and cost-effectively.
Block 869,047 became the first Bitcoin block containing official proof of a U.S. election.
