Building a Decentralized Voting Application with Soroban on Stellar

Introduction

In an era where transparency and trust are paramount, blockchain technology offers solutions to some of the most pressing issues in digital voting. Stellar's Soroban, with its robust smart contract capabilities, provides a unique opportunity to build decentralized voting applications. This article will guide you through creating a decentralized voting application on Soroban, showcasing its potential to ensure transparency, security, and fairness in the voting process.

Why Decentralized Voting?

Traditional voting systems are often plagued with issues such as voter fraud, lack of transparency, and the centralization of control. By leveraging blockchain technology, we can build a voting system that is:

Transparent: All votes are recorded on the blockchain, which can be publicly verified.
Secure: Blockchain ensures that once a vote is cast, it cannot be altered.
Decentralized: No single entity has control over the voting process, reducing the risk of manipulation.

Setting Up the Soroban Environment

Before we dive into coding, let's set up the Soroban environment to build and test our decentralized voting application.

Install Rust: First, ensure Rust is installed on your system:

 curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf https://sh.rustup.rs | sh

Install Soroban CLI: With Rust installed, install the Soroban CLI:
```
 cargo install --locked soroban-cli
```
Verify Installation: Confirm that the Soroban CLI is installed correctly:
```
 soroban --version
```

Creating the Voting Contract

Let's start by writing a smart contract that will manage the voting process. Our contract will allow users to create a proposal, vote on it, and fetch the results.

Create a New Soroban Project:

 soroban contract new voting_contract
 cd voting_contract

Define the Contract: Open src/lib.rs and replace its contents with the following code:

 use soroban_sdk::{contractimpl, Env, Symbol};

 pub struct VotingContract;

 #[contractimpl]
 impl VotingContract {
     pub fn create_proposal(env: Env, proposal_name: String) {
         env.storage().set(Symbol::new(env, "proposal"), &proposal_name);
         env.storage().set(Symbol::new(env, "yes_votes"), &0u32);
         env.storage().set(Symbol::new(env, "no_votes"), &0u32);
     }

     pub fn vote_yes(env: Env) {
         let mut yes_votes: u32 = env.storage().get(Symbol::new(env, "yes_votes")).unwrap();
         yes_votes += 1;
         env.storage().set(Symbol::new(env, "yes_votes"), &yes_votes);
     }

     pub fn vote_no(env: Env) {
         let mut no_votes: u32 = env.storage().get(Symbol::new(env, "no_votes")).unwrap();
         no_votes += 1;
         env.storage().set(Symbol::new(env, "no_votes"), &no_votes);
     }

     pub fn get_results(env: Env) -> (u32, u32) {
         let yes_votes: u32 = env.storage().get(Symbol::new(env, "yes_votes")).unwrap();
         let no_votes: u32 = env.storage().get(Symbol::new(env, "no_votes")).unwrap();
         (yes_votes, no_votes)
     }
 }

In this contract:

create_proposal initializes a new proposal with a name and zero votes.
vote_yes increments the count of yes votes.
vote_no increments the count of no votes.
get_results returns the current number of yes and no votes.

Building the Contract: Compile the contract to generate the WASM file:
```
 soroban build
```
This will create a compiled contract in the target/wasm32-unknown-unknown/release/ directory.

Deploying the Contract on Soroban

Now that our contract is ready, let’s deploy it on the Soroban test network.

Deploy the Contract:

 soroban contract deploy --wasm target/wasm32-unknown-unknown/release/voting_contract.wasm

This command returns a contract ID, which you'll use for interaction.

Initialize a Proposal: Let’s create a proposal using the contract:
```
 soroban contract invoke --id <contract-id> --fn create_proposal --arg "Upgrade to Soroban"
```
Replace <contract-id> with your actual contract ID. This sets up a new proposal titled "Upgrade to Soroban."

Interacting with the Voting Contract

Once deployed, we can interact with the voting contract to cast votes and check results.

Cast a Vote: You can vote “yes” or “no” using the following commands:

To vote yes:

 soroban contract invoke --id <contract-id> --fn vote_yes

To vote no:

 soroban contract invoke --id <contract-id> --fn vote_no

Check Results: To see the current voting results:
```
 soroban contract invoke --id <contract-id> --fn get_results
```
This command will output the number of yes and no votes, giving you real-time visibility into the voting process.

Enhancing the Voting Application

While the basic voting contract is functional, there are several enhancements you can make to create a more sophisticated application:

Voter Authentication: Implement voter registration to ensure that only authorized users can vote.
Vote Weighting: Allow different weights for different voters (e.g., stakeholders vs. regular users).
Proposal Expiry: Introduce a mechanism to close voting after a certain period or when a quorum is reached.
Multi-Choice Voting: Expand beyond binary voting to allow multiple choices.

Conclusion

Soroban on Stellar provides a robust framework for developing decentralized applications like voting systems. By leveraging the transparency, security, and decentralization of blockchain, you can create voting applications that are resistant to fraud and manipulation. The steps outlined in this guide give you a starting point for building and experimenting with Soroban smart contracts, opening up possibilities for innovation in decentralized governance, decision-making, and beyond.

Start building with Soroban today and be a part of the future of decentralized applications on Stellar!

This guide provides practical, hands-on experience in setting up a Soroban environment, writing and deploying a voting contract, and interacting with it. These examples give developers a clear understanding of how to use Soroban for real-world applications, making the learning process more engaging and relevant.