FC Barcelona Completes Historic Fan Clubs Elections Through Web3 Voting

About 1,160 fan clubs of the FC Barcelona have completed electing 30 representatives to the FCB Advisory Council, which is Barcelona’s governing council. The election was significant for blockchain and web3 techs as it took place on a decentralized blockchain-based web3 digital voting platform, with Barcelona becoming the first-ever club to do so.

The move also solidified Barcelona’s previous commitment to entering the cryptocurrency space. 

The completion of voting was announced yesterday and is a huge step towards further democratizing governance within football clubs beyond what traditional voting technologies can do. Blockchain voting promotes secure voting. The entire voting process is not only auditable and verifiable but is also transparent because every data is permanently stamped on the blockchain. 

“After completing an SMS two-factor authentication, voters cast their ballot utilizing blind signatures and received a proof of voting code. This process ensured that each vote had been tallied while maintaining voter anonymity,” read the press release.

“The Penyes movement has a rich history of fan inclusion. FCB has given a voice to its supporters for over a century, and now Vocdoni is bringing this process of cooperative governance into the digital age. This vote is a huge step forward for web3 technology, bridging the gap to traditional markets via powerful use cases,” said Marta Sancho, the project manager at Vocdoni.

Over 1,000 voters from the supporters’ clubs gained access to Vocdoni’s web3 open voting stacks on which the election was held. The platform was accessible through mobile phones and desktop computers. The open-source platform is provided at a fraction of the cost of its centralized counterparts. The platform is censor-resistant, fault resistant, and resistant to hacking. It can be used for all governance voting. Vocdoni leverages Ethereum, xDaichain Tendermint, IPFS, and zero-knowledge-proof technologies.

It also secures the voter’s data which means such data cannot be misused after the election. For instance, there is no personal data stored to create voting censuses. The private keys are generated on the voter’s device based on the specific information of the voting participants. The keys that identify each user stay locally on the user’s device. Necessary credentials are shared to identify the voter during the voting process.

Other European organizations, including Omnium Cultural, have also utilized the voting platform for shareholders’ meetings and elections. It was also used in the first fully digital referendum in the Spanish state.