The Williamson County Republican Party (GOP) in Tennessee made history on March 4, 2025, by using Bitcoin’s network to secure its local convention election results. To ensure the results couldn’t be changed, the party used a software tool called Simple Proof, which recorded the vote on the Bitcoin blockchain.
Steve Hickey won the chairmanship, Tim Raynaud became treasurer, and Leigh Ann Cates took the role of secretary. Simple Proof stored these results on block number 886,370 at exactly 11:15:30 UTC, making them permanent and tamper-proof.
Party leaders said this move strengthens trust and transparency in their voting process. This is the first time a local Republican Party in the U.S. has used blockchain for an election, but it demonstrates how this technology could change the way votes are recorded in the future.
Several organizations have explored Bitcoin’s blockchain to make elections more secure and transparent. In Guatemala, the Supreme Election Tribunal (TSE) used Bitcoin timestamping during the 2023 presidential elections.
They worked with Simple Proof to embed election data onto Bitcoin’s blockchain using a system called OpenTimestamps. This method created a permanent, verifiable record of vote counts.
If anyone tried to change the results, comparing them to the original blockchain entry would expose the fraud. Guatemala became the first country to apply Bitcoin timestamping at a national level to fight election fraud and improve transparency.
Screven County, Georgia, USA, also turned to Bitcoin’s blockchain for a local election in November 2024. While details remain limited, reports suggest Simple Proof was involved again, securing vote data to prevent tampering. This was another U.S. effort to use Bitcoin for election integrity.
Outside of government elections, the Thai Democrat Party in Thailand used blockchain for its primary election in November 2018 to choose a party leader.
Some reports indicate they relied on ZCoin (now called Firo), a cryptocurrency with Bitcoin-like features, to record over 127,000 votes. The blockchain ensured the election was secure and verifiable, making it one of the largest political uses of blockchain at the time.
These examples show that Bitcoin’s role in elections is still in the early stages. It’s not yet a widespread solution, but these experiments highlight how blockchain can make voting more secure and trustworthy.
