Yesterday, Russia’s blockchain-based voting system encountered a hiccup soon after it went live in Moscow and Nizhny Novgorod. The web portal for the remote voting on constitutional amendments crashed due to peak load, Central Election Commission member Anton Lopatin said in a statement. This month, it was reported Russia’s use of blockchain to allow citizens to vote on waving the two-term restriction on presidential appointments. The country’s Supreme Court is also examining blockchain for a remote plenary session with a separate solution.

The mayor of Moscow’s official site reveals that the remote voting solution for the constitutional changes was produced by the Moscow Department of Information Technologies utilizing the Exonum enterprise blockchain platform from Bitfury. The online voting system started on June 25 and will close on June 30, with offline voting on July 1.

“There was a peak in the load because the residents of Moscow and the Nizhny Novgorod region immediately went to vote. As a curator of Nizhny Novgorod, I know that Nizhny Novgorod people are actively participating in remote electronic voting,” Lopatin stated in a statement.

While the site was restored quickly, Ilya Massukh, head of the Public Headquarters for Monitoring and Observation of All-Russian Voting in Moscow, stated that solutions should be developed to manage the high influx of voters as there’s as traffic leads to peak at the commencement and the end.

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has sparked a debate over utilizing remote voting systems, with some stating it’s too early. Earlier this year, MIT researchers discovered vulnerabilities in the voting application produced by Overstock-backed blockchain firm Voatz. Nevertheless, Voatz denied the allegations and stated MIT used an older version.

Last month, Voatz conducted a virtual convention for the Arizona State Republican Party. Meanwhile, the U.S. Congress is also examining blockchain and other technologies for the remote functioning of its two legislative bodies. In India, the Election Commission is operating with premier education institute IIT on a blockchain voting system.