Bitcoin Magazine

How a Georgia County Put Its Election Results on Bitcoin — And Why It Will Transform Election Security

At the Bitcoin 2025 Conference, held May 27-29 at The Venetian Resort in Las Vegas, Simple Proof CEO Carlos Toriello and Screven County, Georgia, Elections Supervisor Stacey Scott shared insights into their groundbreaking use of Bitcoin’s blockchain to secure election results. In an exclusive video interview, now released to the public, the duo detailed how Simple Proof’s hash-only timestamping technology is transforming document authentication while balancing transparency and privacy. The interview, conducted amid the conference’s 30,000 attendees, highlights the growing adoption of Bitcoin-based solutions in public recordkeeping.

Simple Proof, a tech startup leveraging Bitcoin’s OpenTimestamps protocol, made history in November 2024 when Screven County became the first U.S. county to secure its election results on the Bitcoin blockchain, specifically in block 869,047. Toriello explained in the interview, “Our hash-only solution allows organizations like Screven County to prove a document’s existence at a specific time without exposing its contents. This is critical for sensitive records like voter rolls, where privacy and integrity are paramount.” Stacey Scott, who oversaw the implementation in Screven County, added, “This technology gave us a way to ensure our election results were tamper-proof, building trust with our voters.”

The hash-only functionality enables clients to generate cryptographic hashes — a kind of unique identifier derived from the data of the files using commonplace cryptography. The process can be done locally, ensuring sensitive data remains secure while anchoring a timestamp to Bitcoin’s immutable blockchain.

This approach, as Toriello noted, addresses the dual need for transparency and confidentiality in government processes. Screven County’s adoption followed Simple Proof’s earlier success in timestamping Guatemala’s 2023 presidential election, a project Toriello credited with protecting both data integrity and his personal safety during his work as an election auditor.

Beyond elections, Simple Proof is seeing growing interest from other sectors according to Toriello who highlighted potential applications in state archives, where historical documents like constitutions could be safeguarded against tampering, even by advanced threats like rogue AI or quantum computing. The company has also secured records for Williamson County, Tennessee’s Republican Party convention, signaling broader adoption in the U.S. South and beyond.

Simple Proof’s induction into the inaugural class of the Strategy Bitcoin Hub at Strategy HQ underscores its rising prominence. The company’s technology, built on Bitcoin’s OP_Return and OpenTimestamps, creates unforgeable proof of document existence, scalable to vast datasets with minimal blockchain footprint. As Toriello emphasized in the interview, “This isn’t just about elections — it’s about preserving truth for any digital record, from historical archives to everyday transactions.”

“Within a month of meeting Carlos we were able to secure our election results in Screven County Georgia. The great thing is it was super simple, I didn’t have to know anything about Bitcoin or the blockchain, all I had to do was send an email with the election results to Simple Proof and they were able to time stamp this on the blockchain,” Scott recalled in the interview with Bitcoin Magazine. 

Simple Proof’s work is reframing Bitcoin as more than a currency, positioning it as a tool for immutable recordkeeping, while using scalable technologies that respect the Bitcoin blockchain’s scalability concerns and best practices. With interest growing in regions beyond the U.S. South and in industries like legal and archival services, the company is poised to expand its impact. 

This post How a Georgia County Put Its Election Results on Bitcoin — And Why It Will Transform Election Security first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Juan Galt.