How Far Would You Go To Hide Data? Decentralised Corruption vs The New Internet

In an age where information travels at light speed, the question of data integrity—especially in critical civic processes—becomes paramount. What happens when the very systems designed to protect data become complicit in its manipulation? This isn’t a hypothetical scenario; it’s the daily reality in many parts of the world, highlighting a fierce battle between an old foe: decentralized corruption, and a new champion: the decentralized internet.

The Unseen Costs of Centralized Trust and the Digital Divide

The urgency for a new paradigm became vividly clear through a personal experience:

“2 years ago, Nigeria became clear to me. One evening before my epiphany, a friend from uni sent me a worried message, “I may have to leave the country for a while”, he said. “If I do, I’m leaving my properties in your care.”

My head rushed with questions, but I quickly understood the situation. Over the months leading up to Nigeria’s elections, the media was intoxicated with tribal conflicts. As a country with 512+ ethnic groups split across 2 major religions, the country easily falls apart in the minds of the common individuals that support it when faced with these particular stressors.

His tribe had been under fire for months, growing from internet propaganda to assault threats in group chats and boycotts in Lagos markets, maturing into marching protests and physical brutality for voter intimidation by election day.

At the same time, the country’s Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) reported 12.9 million cyberattack attempts from local and foreign sources to their database by election day.

Planetary Economy 2025

Today’s economic model is an energy cycle circulating the planet. We’ve been distributing resources from time, but the internet now enables the transmission of thought exponentially faster than experience.

Meaning you no longer have to go to a place to understand it to some extent.

This planetary-scale energy cycling results in more efficient arrangements of resources for continued cycling as we begin to share one conscious mind, just like the Tower of Babel. The consequence? Access to this worldwide reach is now a foundational resource you need to stay competitive in today’s world. Why compete?

Our internet was designed to grant all users access to a larger pool of resources by multiplying their network strength & speed, without discrimination. But in weakened economies, access to this foundational resource is inhibited by bigger hurdles than data plans & pricing, including:

• Personal hardware: a computer and a power source.

• User awareness: skills, knowledge & experience about the risks & opportunities involved.

• Connectivity infrastructure: towers, cables and routers.

But if you’ve never or seldom used the internet, why spend on the resource (access) at all?

Without valid and clear incentives, expediting underserved communities’ internet access may easily backfire or prove futile. So why bother connecting the world online?

Meet the Unwillingly Disconnected

There are 3-4 categories of the unwillingly disconnected, based on the very hurdles standing between them and access:

• Those who know the basics and live close to urban infrastructure but can’t afford smartphones or the amount of electrical power required to keep them on (urban power supply deficiencies or auxiliary power supply costs).

• Others who have the hardware & live close to the infrastructure but have almost no idea what their smartphone or power supply can do.

• The rest who may have everything else but proximity to urban connectivity infrastructure (living in remote areas),

• or even none of the 3 hurdles conquered. (unwillingly, unknowingly disconnected)

But what if web3’s greatest relevance is in shedding the need to be constantly online to use the internet?

That would make our reason to connect the world online be to access the unwillingly disconnected, better opportunities at their level of convenience.”

This stark reality underscores the vital need for a new approach to internet access. If a decentralized internet network could offer affordable, remote connectivity—say, at $1-2/month—it would not only bridge the digital divide for the “unwillingly disconnected” in countries like Nigeria, India, and Indonesia but also build unprecedented trust. Such a service, designed for deep relevance, could transform how these communities engage with digital opportunities, making even national governments reliant on its stability and security.

When Checks and Balances Become Collaborators: Unpacking Decentralized Corruption

The problem runs deeper than connectivity. In many nations, Montesquieu’s “Separation of Powers,” designed to prevent tyranny, is undermined by a phenomenon we call “decentralized corruption.” This occurs when the branches of government, meant to check each other, instead collaborate for personal, political, or economic gain.

Nigeria’s 1999 constitution, for instance, allows its president to appoint key figures, including the Chief Justice and the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), often with only a Senate majority that can be influenced. This creates a powerful network where those meant to be independent watchdogs are, in fact, part of the same team.

The 2023 Nigerian elections offered a chilling illustration. Despite citizens meticulously documenting and publishing election results from polling units, the official tallies broadcast by INEC were widely perceived as manipulated. Evidence of tampering, voter intimidation, and forced data manipulation was disregarded by the Supreme Court.

“Come look at this, Monty. This is what I call decentralised corruption. Who does this system keep out?

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On election day, Nigerian citizens with different levels of experience gathered at polling units to vote, and many even stayed to confirm the count with their assigned INEC staff. That day, citizens unrelated by anything but their polling unit & voting data made and published copies of totals they ensured to count themselves and their INEC results sheets, pasted publicly (Form EC60E) and even the officials’ EC8A forms. They saved them on their phones, published them on WhatsApp stories and publicised them on Twitter. The data was so pure that an amateur in web forensics could clearly establish that each instance was consistent and published from independent, individual sources who held no social contract or motive outside of shared polling units. Four days after the elections, results were quietly broadcast at 4 AM on National TV by the INEC chairman. INEC’s results were not the will of the people. Samples online showed clear tampering with official forms, citizens confessed to being forced to manipulate data, or dangerously assaulted for refusing; in addition to voting suppression and intimidation efforts nationwide. The data I had confirmed by myself was, is and forever will be true. But when we appealed in obedience to the Constitution, this evidence was completely disregarded. I sat in my office and worked the whole day, listening to the Supreme Court lie blatantly to me and the rest of the country on YouTube, wondering how we got into this mess, and I had my epiphany.

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The frustration isn’t unique to Nigeria. The global youth, especially, are seeking alternatives. For example, Nepal’s re-elections on Discord highlighted a willingness to embrace new digital platforms for democratic processes. Moreover, millions of Nigerians in the diaspora, disenfranchised by the current system, send billions in remittances yearly, yet lack a voice in national elections. Decentralized corruption would naturally oppose any system that offers transparency and empowers these citizens, as it would challenge their very foundation.

A Decentralized Shield: Spacecoin’s Vision for Secure Elections

Fighting fire with fire means deploying decentralized security against decentralized corruption. Imagine a “public remote governance machine” powered by a decentralized satellite network like Spacecoin. This network could secure votes, protect privacy, and restore faith in electoral processes, even for those currently offline or in remote areas.

Spacecoin’s CTC satellites, with their 5G NTN (Direct-to-Cell) technology, offer a critical advantage: direct device connection without the need for additional hardware like routers. This enables double-encrypted data transmission directly from voting devices, completely bypassing vulnerable local infrastructures. The data is routed through a distributed network of satellites, making it virtually impossible to tamper with. The only way to eliminate the data would be to destroy all satellites simultaneously.

“How would data be secured? Spacecoin’s CTC satellites hold one important edge over their Starlink competitors for this purpose. While Starlink currently owns more than 65% of the total sats in our orbit, even reporting an increase to 8,075 working units in August this year, CTCs come equipped with 5G NTN technology that allows direct device connection [Direct-to-Cell (D2C) or Direct Satellite-to-Device (DS2D)] without the need for hardware like satellites or routers. This means we can double-encrypt the data from the voting window securely for these satellites, which never actually handle raw election data. To do this successfully and according to Spacecoin’s values, goals & systems in the whitepaper, Spacecoin would need multiple ground stations and satellites for a decentralised network at the national stage. Since your company already intends to include other satellite owners in this decentralised network, we could invite Nigeria’s government, stating that we’ll prioritise its geostationary NIGCOMSAT1 during elections and also generate revenue through it if they join in. This way quickly transforms concern into credit, especially given the sister (Creditcoin) and parent (Gluwa) companies’ relationships with the Nigerian government. Spacecoin is developing the infrastructure to share data with other satellites, including geostationary ones, for internet connectivity. With a decentralised network of satellites protecting voting & election results data on-chain, even Spacecoin couldn’t say which ones were handling data in addition to their device authentication functionality. Similar to clustered computing, these satellites distribute voting data and tallying functions between each other as points, nodes, and clusters, programmed to respond with agility to failures, where the only way to get rid of that data is to wreck all the satellites at once. Simple programs like ==accept data, refuse, store, calculate, and transfer== are optimised through each component to find the best route, similar to how a global-scale delivery company like FedEx may route packages.

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This innovative system could even integrate government-owned satellites, like Nigeria’s NIGCOMSAT-1R, into the network, generating revenue for the government through bandwidth sales for every vote processed. This collaborative model transforms concern into credit, making the solution appealing even to traditionally corrupt systems.

Here are the actionable steps for how such a system could work:

1. Authenticate Voter Identity: Secure verification of each Voter Identification Number (VIN) and National Identification Number (NIN) through a multichannel approach (smartphone app, USSD, web app, polling machines). The decentralized satellite network queries existing databases like INEC’s and verifies registered citizens and their devices against their VIN.

2. Cast and Confirm Vote Remotely: Once a selection is made and confirmed, the encrypted voting data feeds directly to the satellite network, bypassing reliance on local databases. Voters receive immediate on-screen and SMS confirmation with their vote and a reference code, effectively acting as distributed monitors for their own ballot.

3. Secure Data Collation & Transparent Results: Simple algorithmic functions route and process the distributed data across the satellite network. Since the data management protocol is decentralized and blockchain-enabled, no single entity—not even the network proprietor—can tamper with the results. Final tallies are delivered back to voters, ensuring an immutable record.

This system makes election interference virtually impossible. With Spacecoin’s capacity aiming for billions of voters, even shooting down all satellites globally would be the only way to disrupt it. This level of security, combined with the ability to bridge USSD portals with blockchain without constant internet connection, is truly revolutionary.

Conclusion: Empowering Citizens in the New Internet Era

Socrates once feared that everyday citizens could be easily manipulated in a democracy. While a decentralized election system can’t prevent people from making choices, it ensures those choices are accurately recorded and respected. It forces greater accountability and incentivizes citizens to be more informed, knowing their vote truly counts.

The fight against decentralized corruption demands an equally decentralized and robust response. If governments are willing to go to extreme lengths to manipulate data, citizens need access to technology that goes infinitely further to secure it. This new internet, built on decentralized satellite networks and blockchain technology, promises not just connectivity, but unprecedented levels of trust, transparency, and accountability for everyone.

“How far would you go to hide election data? If governments are willing to go as far as Nigeria’s did in 2023, citizens must be willing to go much, much, much, much, much, much, much farther. So if I, or others like me who criticise my leaders like he did at my age, ever turn out like he did, I would be incapable of this decentralised corruption.”

Explore the Future of Governance

Discover how Spacecoin is pioneering solutions for verifiable, tamper-proof elections and empowering citizens worldwide. Learn more about the technology that makes secure, decentralized governance a tangible reality. Visit Spacecoin’s resources to dive deeper into their mission and impact.

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