Bitcoin as a clock no one controls: how a Georgia county timestamps its elections

On 5 November 2024, Screven County in the US state of Georgia became the first US county to use the Bitcoin blockchain to protect its election results. The county worked with the company Simple Proof. On 14 October the story is on stage at TABConf in Atlanta.

1. The county takes a digital document, such as the certified results.
2. Software computes a hash: a short fingerprint. Any change to the document, even one character, gives a completely different fingerprint.
3. The fingerprint is anchored in a Bitcoin transaction with the open-source OpenTimestamps protocol, created by Bitcoin developer Peter Todd.
4. Later, anyone holding the document can recompute the fingerprint and check that it matches the one recorded in Bitcoin at that time.

Simple Proof's CEO Carlos Toriello describes Bitcoin as "a clock that no one controls". The election supervisor, Stacy Scott Mincey, told Bitcoin Magazine she only had to email the results to Simple Proof to get them timestamped.

• It proves that a document existed in exactly this form no later than the time of the block, and that it has not changed since.
• It does not prove that the document was correct when it was made. A wrong count, timestamped, is still a wrong count.
• It keeps data private. Because only a fingerprint is published, sensitive files such as voter rolls can be protected without exposing them.

According to the TABConf session description, the county used the same method for voter rolls in 2025 and, in 2026, put "rolling timestamps" on footage from a ballot drop-box camera, which the speakers call a world first.

14 Oct, 09:00 Atlanta / 16:00 MSK, main stage: "How Bitcoin is improving election and video surveillance integrity in Georgia". The session also asks how other Georgia counties could copy the approach for the November mid-term elections.

See the full TABConf 8 preview, or add the conference to your calendar.