Doubts arise over auditor of Russia2024 blockchain voting campaign

Russian
exiled
anti-Putin
activist
and
former
Pussy
Riot
lawyer
Mark
Feygin
says
his
new
blockchain
app
made
to
challenge
Putin’s
legitimacy
was
audited
by
Halborn,
but
a
lack
of
evidence
shows
that
may
not
be
the
case.

Mark
Feygin,
a
Russian
human
rights
activist
and
former
lawyer
who
represented
a
Russian
feminist
protest
and
performance
art
group
Pussy
Riot,
is
rolling
out
his
new
venture
dubbed
Russia2024
set
to
challenge
the
legitimacy
of
the
recent
Russian
elections.

As
per
a
press
release
shared
with
crypto.news,
Fegyin
wants
to
launch
a
“referendum
challenging
the
legitimacy
of
the
Russian
elections”
in
order
to
allow
Russians
to
“cast
votes
declaring
whether
the
results
are
illegitimate
or
not.”

“The
referendum
will
be
the
first
protest
vote
to
go
live
on
Russia2024.
The
app
was
built
using
Rarimo’s
Freedom
Tool,
a
surveillance-free
voting
solution.
Freedom
Tool
leverages
blockchain
and
zero-knowledge
cryptography
to
ensure
citizens
can
poll,
vote
and
protest
without
being
tracked.”

Rarimo
director
Kitty
Horlick

The
initiative
website’s
FAQ
says
those
interested
in
participation
would
have
to
scan
their
passports
through
a
mobile
app
developed
for
Android
and
iOS
devices
(as
of
press
time,
the
iOS
version
appears
to
be
delisted
from
the
App
Store),
reassuring
that
when
scanning
“personal
data
does
not
leave
your
phone,
ensuring
complete
confidentiality.”

The
press
release
shared
with
crypto.news
claims
that
Russia2024
“has
been
publicly
stress-tested
via
audits
and
white
hackers
for
two
months.”

In
a

Telegram
post
on
his
channel,
Mark
Feygin
implied
in
early
April
that
Russia2024
was
audited
by
Halborn,
an
international
blockchain
securit
firm
that
conducted
audits
for
THORSwap,
Polygon,
and
blockchain
projects.

However,
crypto.news
could
not
find
any
indications
on
Halborn’s

website
that
the
firm
actually
conducted
any
audits
for
Russia2024,
raising
concerns
on
the
app’s
transparency
and
data
handling
processes.

In
his
Telegram
channel,
Feygin
refers
to

a
Notion
document
written
in
Russian
as
a
proof
of
Halborn’s
audit
of
Russia2024
with
attached
PDF
file
that
contains
what
appears
to
be
a
draft
audit,
but
rather
for
Rarimo
itself,
rather
than
the
Russia2024
campaign.

The
Russia2024
official
website
also

implies
that
Halborn
did
in
fact
audit
the
application,
although
it
does
not
explicitly
say
that
the
blockchain
firm
audited
Russia2024.

Rarimo’s
official
website
also

claims
that
the
project
was
audited
by
Halborn
and
Ambisafe.
In
an
email
to
crypto.news,
Rarilabs
director
Kitty
Horlick
confirmed
that
“Rarimo
and
Freedom
Tool
was
audited
by
Halborn.
I
have
no
idea
why
we
aren’t
listed
on
the
[Halborn]
site.”
To
back
up
the
statement,
Horlick
also
included
several
links
that
lead
to
PDF
versions
of
audits
conducted
by
Halborn
on
Rarimo’s
Github.

Despite
Rarimo’s
insistence
that
the
project
has
been
audited,
thus
far
there
is
no
proof
on
X
that
either
Rarimo
or
Russia2024
were
actually
audited
by
Halborn.