Modeling a bulletin board service based on broadcast channels with memory

Abstract

The publication of the election data is fundamental for making electronic voting systems universally verifiable. For this, voting protocols usually rely on a secure bulletin board, which keeps track of the data produced during the protocol execution. This paper presents a general model for implementing such a bulletin board service. The design of the model is based on the concept of an ideal broadcast channel with memory, which transmits messages without loss of information to a present or future receiver. The challenge of implementing a bulletin board service is to approximate the properties of such an ideal channel to the best possible degree. Our model contributes to a better understanding of these properties and may help in designing future bulletin board implementations.