Voting systems have evolved during the last hundreds of years to become more sophisticated and complex, starting from paper-based ballots up to electronic voting machines and internet voting which have been introduced as new voting technologies. However, electronic-based methods have raised concerns about security and the potential for tampering results, manipulation or hacking. The TREVO project aims to revolutionize electronic voting systems by employing decentralized identities rooted on blockchain and an SSI approach that puts the user at the center of the process from the early phases of the design phase.

The main objective of TREVO is to tackle main challenges in electronic voting that are still open. It enables secure and transparent electronic voting through its mobile application and digital wallet, which employ DIDs, VCs and ZKPs to ensure voter anonymity, ballot privacy, trusted audit and verifiability through blockchain. The framework incorporates a mobile wallet that enables EU-wide interoperability for citizen authentication and authorization based on well-established technologies entailing trust from anchors of the public sector.

TREVO’s mobile application is cocreated with the end-users (Trikala - a Greek municipality), keeping them in the loop from the ideation and design process up to the testing and evaluation, integrating their feedback through an iterative procedure. TREVO is deployed and evaluated/validated in real use cases of Trikala where direct citizen feedback is needed for addressing issues such as urban planning, wider regional strategies (e.g. energy or digital transition) and e-governance, leaving no one behind, including elderly people and vulnerable groups.

The new approach is expected to increase the trustworthiness of e-voting systems in EU and across the globe and even make a step towards initiating the discussion for e-voting in national elections.