Votação eletrônica descentralizada com blockchain e Proof of Authority

Abstract

Electronic voting systems require mechanisms capable of preserving integrity, vote uniqueness, availability, and auditability. In digital architectures, these requirements depend not only on the voting interface, but also on how the system records votes, validates transactions, and organizes trust among participants. This work proposes, implements, and evaluates a prototype of a decentralized electronic voting system based on peer-to-peer networking, blockchain, and Proof of Authority (PoA) consensus, focusing on permissioned networks composed of previously known validators. The solution was implemented in Go using the libp2p library, adopting a modular architecture, event-driven processing, and deterministic round-robin leader selection. Experimental validation was conducted in a controlled environment with three validator nodes through tests covering result integrity, double-voting prevention, and crash-stop fault tolerance. The results showed that the system correctly finalizes valid votes, preserves vote uniqueness in the final blockchain state, and maintains operation after the failure of one validator. These findings indicate that the proposed approach is technically feasible within the evaluated experimental scope and provides a basis for future improvements in smaller institutional scenarios.