CrypTally: A Lightweight Blockchain-based E-Voting System

O'Laighín, Oisín (2025) CrypTally: A Lightweight Blockchain-based E-Voting System. Masters thesis, Dublin, National College of Ireland.

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Abstract

Electronic voting systems (EVS) face persistent challenges: ensuring security, transparency, and tamper resistance without sacrificing usability or scalability. Traditional solutions often depend on centralised infrastructures, which are vulnerable to manipulation and lack robust audit trails. Blockchain has emerged as a potential remedy, but mainstream implementations frequently introduce high complexity and performance constraints.

This research presents a custom-built simulated blockchain voting system developed in Python with Flask, JWT, and Fernet encryption. Unlike Ethereum or Hyperledger based designs, it omits consensus algorithms and smart contracts, instead prioritising local immutability, one-time vote tokens, hash-chained blocks, and verifiable tamper detection.

Across nine development iterations, the system integrated token-based authentication, bcrypt password hashing, vote hashing, receipt generation, and full tallying. Performance testing with 100 automated votes achieved 46.95 transactions per second (TPS), an average vote time of 0.0213 seconds, and a tally time of 1.42 seconds, matching or exceeding comparable EVS benchmarks.

The final version (v9) is optimised for small-scale or institutional elections requiring transparency, speed, and verifiability without decentralisation. Potential future enhancements include stronger cryptographic secrecy, multi-node deployment, and improved voter privacy safeguards.

Item Type:	Thesis (Masters)
Supervisors:	Name Email Verma, Rohit UNSPECIFIED
Subjects:	Q Science > QA Mathematics > Computer software > Computer Security > Database security > Blockchains (Databases) T Technology > T Technology (General) > Information Technology > Computer software > Computer Security > Database security > Blockchains (Databases) Z Bibliography. Library Science. Information Resources > ZA Information resources > ZA4050 Electronic information resources > Databases > Distributed databases > Blockchains (Databases) Q Science > QA Mathematics > Computer software > Computer Security T Technology > T Technology (General) > Information Technology > Computer software > Computer Security
Divisions:	School of Computing > Master of Science in Cyber Security
Depositing User:	Ciara O'Brien
Date Deposited:	16 Jun 2026 13:58
Last Modified:	16 Jun 2026 13:58
URI:	https://norma.ncirl.ie/id/eprint/9366

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