PunkPoll Unveils Censorship-Resistant Voting and Survey Platform Powered by Zero-Knowledge Proofs and Mina Protocol

As part of its Open Beta launch, PunkPoll is integrating with the popular Korean-based messenger app KakaoTalk, reaching more than 150 million users with Mina's succinct ZK blockchain

GENEVA, Jan. 25, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Mina Foundation, the organization serving the Mina Protocol, has partnered with PunkPoll, an online voting and survey platform that today announces the launch of its Open Beta. The PunkPoll voting system allows for anonymous responses and protects personal privacy through a zero-knowledge-native design verified on Mina Protocol.

As part of its Open Beta launch, PunkPoll is integrating with KakaoTalk, a popular Korean-based messenger app with more than 150 million users worldwide. This integration is made possible by Mina's recursive zero-knowledge proof technology, which allows for its succinct 22KB blockchain to be embedded in users' smartphones and day-to-day devices.

Joon Kim, a board member of the Mina Foundation, said of the partnership, "The holy grail of blockchain is finding killer use cases. PunkPoll, through its Open Beta, is positioned to showcase not only ZK-voting for real-world users, guaranteeing privacy and security, but decentralized identity verification through social graphing. We believe that PunkPoll not only highlights the potential of Mina's technology but stands as a beacon for the blockchain industry as a whole. Mina Foundation is excited for what else is to come through this partnership."

Mina Protocol uses zero-knowledge proofs (ZKPs) that allow one party to prove to another that a statement is true without revealing any information beyond the validity of the statement. Leveraging Mina's ZK offerings for developers, PunkPoll minimizes the risks of sensitive data disclosure while upholding polling transparency and verifying the uniqueness of users' identities.

PunkPoll's platform supports a wide range of voting and survey use cases and user preferences. Among these features, PunkPoll offers social graphing — a novel voter authentication method where friends verify each others' identities, rather than relying on personal documents and centralized certification authorities. This approach enables identity verification based on human relationships and is a key part of PunkPoll's decentralized registration process.

Peter Baek, the CEO of PunkPoll added, "The aim of PunkPoll's service is to enhance the transparency of voting processes and ensure the integrity of voting results, all while protecting the privacy of voters. By utilizing recursive zero-knowledge proofs on Mina's performant Hodori Net, and soon, on mainnet, we simplify the voting verification process and enhance the scalability of the system. We believe the combination of these cutting-edge technologies effectively solves the problems that occur in existing voting systems."

PunkPoll launches its Open Beta service on the Mina Hodori Net, featuring an anonymized 'News-Based Public Opinion Poll' system based on its zk-Voting infrastructure. For more information, please visit: https://www.punkpoll.io/.

Joon Kim, board member of the Mina Foundation, is available for comment

About Mina Protocol 
Mina Protocol is a next-gen zero knowledge (ZK) blockchain. Rather than apply brute computing force, Mina uses advanced cryptography and recursive zk-SNARKs to design an entire blockchain that is fixed at 22KB, the size of a couple tweets. Lightweight and accessible, Mina enables efficient implementation and easy programmability of zero knowledge smart contracts (zkApps). With Mina's enhanced privacy features and off-chain execution model, developers can build novel applications that bridge the real world and crypto—bringing us closer to the secure, democratic future we all deserve.

About Mina Foundation:
The Mina Foundation serves the Mina Protocol. The Foundation supports the protocol and its community by issuing grants to third parties that make significant contributions, fostering community growth, and championing Mina in the wider world. Mina Foundation board members include former Executive Director at ZCash Foundation Josh Cincinnati, Harvard Business School Finance Professor, and Coinbase Advisory board member Marco Di Maggio, Head of Product at OP Labs Tess Rinearson, Mina Foundation General Counsel Joon Kim, and former O(1) Labs CEO Evan Shapiro.

About PunkPoll:
PunkPoll is a decentralized voting and public opinion polling platform, aiming to innovatively transform political participation in the digital age. This platform is designed to address several limitations and vulnerabilities of traditional voting systems, such as the potential for manipulation, lack of transparency, and privacy issues. PunkPoll employs the latest decentralized technologies, including Zero-Knowledge Proof (ZKP) based blockchain and NFTs, to provide a secure and transparent voting system, as well as anonymized surveys and public opinion polling, enabling users to directly participate in substantial decision-making processes.

This system uses a decentralized registration method, allowing users to become PunkPoll citizens (panel members) through social graph authentication via messenger. This facilitates user participation in the mechanisms of direct democracy, with the goal of creating a user-friendly platform that is easily accessible from anywhere in the world.