I Open-Sourced an Experimental Holochain Voting hApp
I just open-sourced holochain-ballot: an experimental voting hApp built on Holochain.
Repo: https://github.com/ta10101/holochain-ballot
Why I built this
I wanted a small, inspectable project that shows how voting logic maps to Holochain primitives:
election entries
voter registration
ballot links
tally reconstruction from DHT data
The goal is clarity and auditability for demos and org/community pilots, not “black-box election tech.”
What it includes
Rust zomes (integrity + coordinator)
Tryorama tests for key vote-path behavior
Static showcase UI (teaching/demo mode)
Live dashboard that streams a real Tryorama run
Minimal real-client script for local conductor calls
Docs for scope, threat model, lifecycle, limits, audit path, and operations
The trust model (important)
This project is intentionally scoped as:
Experimental
Good for learning, demos, and controlled org/community pilots
Not a certified public-election/government system
Current model is transparent tally, not secret ballot.
That means this repo optimizes for inspectability and recount-style verification in small controlled contexts.
Explicit non-goals
I wanted to avoid vague claims, so the docs are very direct:
no promise of one-human-one-vote “in the wild”
no claim of government-grade certification
no secret-ballot implementation in this repo
There’s an explicit NO-GO decision for secret-ballot/high-stakes implementation unless a future scope change and separate track are approved.
What I learned while building
Scope clarity is a feature, not just documentation.
A transparent model is easier to reason about and demo end-to-end.
Governance tooling needs explicit lifecycle and role boundaries, even in prototypes.
“Security posture” docs should ship with code from day one.
If you want to try it
Start with the README quickstart and choose either:
the showcase for concept walkthrough, or
the live dashboard for real DNA behavior via Tryorama
Repo: https://github.com/ta10101/holochain-ballot
Feedback I’d love
developer UX improvements
clearer audit/export patterns
better pilot operator ergonomics
test scenarios worth adding next
If you work with Holochain, governance systems, or auditable workflows, I’d really value your input.
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