The Tezos (XTZ) blockchain and cryptocurrency could profit from voting and elections.
Tezos’ developers hope their blockchain could become the standard for elections. The hope is not a pipe dream. The Paris suburb of Neuilly-sur-Seine will conduct E-voting for municipal elections on Tezos, Tezos claims.
To explain, Neuilly-sur-Seine’s government will test the Tezos-hosted Electis app. Electis is a Paris-based non-profit organization that builds blockchain voting solutions.
Elections are a big and growing business, 158 million Americans cast ballots in the 2020 presidential election, the World Population Review estimates. That number grew by 21 million from the 137 million Americans who voted in 2016.
Is there a demand for Election Technology?
US figures are impressive but American voter turnouts are lower than those other developed nations. For example, 87.2% of Belgium’s population participated in that country’s 2014 national election and 82.6% of Swedes voted in a 2014 election.
Some countries have huge electorates. For example, I estimate there were 82.17 million voters in Mexico, 31.08 million registered voters in Spain, and 289.044 million registered voters in the United States in 2021. I base these estimates on the numbers the World Population Review provides.
The greatest voter turnout is in India where almost 900 million people cast ballots in the 2019 general election, Reuters estimates.
Hence there is an enormous market for new and better election technology. I think the widespread allegations of vote fraud and voter suppression in the United States will drive demands for election reforms that include better technology and security.
So what is Tezos?
Tezos’ developers call their creation a “generic and self-amending crypto-ledger.”
The Tezos White Paper claims several blockchains including Ethereum, Bitcoin (BTC), and Cryptonote can integrate with the Tezos blockchain. Tezos achieves integration by adding the proper interface the network layer.*
Interestingly, the White Paper claims Tezos can support meta upgrades. The White Paper also boasts that Tezos protocols can evolve by amending their code.
They govern Tezos through a voting mechanism they call the seed protocol. The White Paper describes the seed protocol as a “pure proof-of-stake system” that supports Turing Smart Contracts.
A Turing Smart Contract is digital robot built with a programming language that simulates a Turing Machine. A Turing Machine is a mechanical device that simulates an algorithm’s logic. Computer pioneer Alan Turing invented Turing Machines to investigate the limitations of mechanical computing during the 1930s.
Theoretically, Turing Smart Contracts could be simpler and faster than other other smart contracts. Hence, a Turing Smart Contract could perform tasks such as voting and keep them secure.
Tezos and NFT
Tezos is also experimenting with non-fungible tokens (NFTs). For instance, a publisher called InterPop is creating an NFT comic book they call The Nine, a press release states.
The hope is to create a comic that allows fans to choose plot twists and outcomes. InterPop will also create NFT collectibles and games in Tezos. Thus could create a template for taking major pop culture properties such as the Marvel Universe into the blockchain. They will conduct Interpop transactions with Tezos (XTZ).
Conversely, I am skeptical of NFTs. My prediction is that some hacker will crack or forge an NFT and prove that non-fungible tokens are fungible. Once they crack an NFT, NFT prices will plummet and the market will crash. Such a crash will be inevitable if somebody exposes a major NFT as a fraud.
However, I think there could be a demand for NFTs in niche areas such as comics and games. Hence, InterPop could be onto something. I think comics are a niche market that I think fraudsters and hackers will ignore. To elaborate, I do not think there is enough money in comics to attract the crooks’ interest.
Is Tezos a good Cryptocurrency?
I consider Tezos (XTZ) a versatile cryptocurrency because it is interchangeable with Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) the most popular altcoins.
In addition, they claim Tezos has a powerfully-scalable modular architecture. That means they can build constructs of an enormous size in Tezos. Those constructs could include payments systems that could process tens of thousands of transactions at once.
In addition, the developers claim they can upgrade without forks. Hence, they can adjust upgrade. and rebuild Tezos fast without forks. In addition, they claim Tezos’ blockchain is more energy efficient and cheaper to operate than Blockchain or Ethereum because uses proof-of-stake blockchain.
Thus, Tezos’ applications could be cheaper to operate and more energy efficient than competitors. That could be a major selling point in the age of Climate Change and Global Warming.
What Value Does Tezos Have?
Mr. Market gives Tezos (XTZ) some value. For example, CoinMarketCap gave Tezos a Coin Price of $2.53 a Market Capitalization of $2.162 billion, a Fully-Diluted Market Cap of $2.233 billion, and a 24-Hour Market Volume of $80.271 million on 16 July 2021. They base those numbers on a Circulating Supply of 852.676 million XTZ and a Total Supply of 882.520 million XTZ.
In contrast, CoinBase estimates Tezos had a Coin Price of $2.53 a Market Capitalization of $2.2 billion, and a 24-Hour Market Volume of $79 million on the same day. Coinbase bases those estimates on a Circulating Supply of 852.7 million XTZ.
I think Mr. Markets’ Tezos valuation is fair because the cryptocurrency has some value. However, I do not think XTZ will be worth the $2.53 Coin Price until they conduct an election or release a popular NFT in Tezos. Conversely, I think Tezos could be a popular and successful blockchain if it becomes the standard mechanism in which they conduct digital elections.
*https://tezos.com/whitepaper.pdf
Originally published at https://marketmadhouse.com on July 15, 2021.
 Make Money from Voting?){kind=link}