Musk is waving DOGE's "machete" to consider "moving" the US Treasury Department to the blockchain. Which chain is expected to stand out?

Author: Weilin, PANews

On February 13, the U.S. Department of Efficiency (DOGE) website was officially launched to publish details and evidence of government cost reductions, which also marks a latest progress in the department in reducing U.S. government costs. As of the afternoon of February 13, Musk's government efficiency ministry has saved US taxpayers $37.89 billion, according to doge-tracker data (according to DOGE's Twitter). These savings only account for what Musk sets Reduced US government spending by 1.9% of the $2 trillion target.

On February 9, Coinbase CEO called for increased transparency in government spending through blockchain technology. “It’s going a lot, DOGE,” Brian Armstrong wrote in a February 9th platform X post. "Imagine that if every government spending could be transparently done on the chain, it would make audits easier." On February 10, Cathie Wood, founder of asset management company Ark Invest, also proposed to Musk The idea of ​​putting all U.S. government spending on blockchain expressed support, commenting that “transparent, efficient, secure: win-win, win-win, win-win.”

DOGE is considering using blockchain technology to reduce government

costs

According to a report by Bloomberg in late January, DOGE is considering using blockchain technology to reduce government costs, and people familiar with the matter revealed that relevant internal discussions are underway. If DOGE launches a plan, the scale of this plan will be larger and may be adopted in multiple government departments.

Bloomberg quoted people familiar with the matter as saying that in the discussion, some mentioned the use of blockchain to track federal spending, protect data, make payments, and even manage buildings. A person familiar with the matter said that people related to DOGE have met with representatives from multiple public blockchain networks to evaluate the technology. A man who traveled to Palm Beach, Florida last December proposed several ways to apply blockchain to Trump’s transition team officials, focusing on the technology’s potential in protecting vital government data and tracking flows of funds.

On February 3, Musk shared his views on bringing the US Treasury transactions to the chain. In a question post on X platform, Musk responded vigorously: "Yes!"

The U.S. Department of Efficiency was formally created by an executive order signed by President Trump on January 20, responsible for modernizing federal technology and software, thereby maximizing government efficiency and productivity. Trump said the department will work with the White House Office of Management and Budget to identify spending cuts and provide advice by July 4, 2026.

Its leader is entrepreneur Musk, who was originally scheduled to lead with Musk, but Vivek withdrew for some reason before formal appointment. DOGE has an office in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building and has approximately 20 employees. Musk recruited about 100 volunteers to write code for his project before Trump took office, a person familiar with the matter said.

Musk has pushed the use of blockchain technology to force government transparency, but he is not the first time he has proposed this concept. In April 2024, former U.S. presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said he hopes to bring the entire federal budget to the chain. "Every American can view every budget in the entire budget at any time, and it's visible 24 hours a day," the politician told the audience at a rally in Michigan. "We will have 300 million eyes staring at us." The budget. If someone spends $16,000 to buy a toilet seat, everyone will know.”

Kennedy's proposal has been widely supported by small government and sound money advocates, who believe that U.S. government spending has gone out of control.

Which blockchain network is expected to be favored?

Jean Rausis, co-founder of decentralized financial platform Smartex, said Musk's proposal to transfer the U.S. Treasury Department to blockchain could make the U.S. a "de facto global leader in blockchain innovation." “While it’s hard to say which blockchain is capable of this task, it’s important that it has to be permissionless. Otherwise, the promised transparency will be nothing more than empty talk. But if the Treasury Department accepts decentralized infrastructure, It may become a catalyst for the start of integration of the Web2 and Web3 worlds.”

After the Bloomberg report was released, Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson immediately said on X, "I think this task should be done by Cardano, Bitcoin and Midnight. Hey, DOGE master Musk, come to us, we can help for free." ”

On January 26, according to Dragonfly managing partner Haseeb Qureshi, the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) may launch an AVAX sub-chain in 2025 to report public spending, all spending can be traced on the chain through stablecoins. The wallets of government agencies and contractors are published and analyzed by public data detectives every day.

Currently, there are use cases on Avalanche. On July 30 last year, the California Motor Vehicle Administration has digitized 42 million automotive ownership certificates on the Avalanche blockchain to detect fraud and simplify the ownership transfer process.

In addition, Ava Labs (the company behind the Avalanche blockchain) has partnered with Deloitte and the Federal Emergency Measures Agency (FEMA) to launch a new disaster assistance platform to help the U.S. government simplify its submission to the Federal Emergency Measures Agency. Disaster compensation application.

The idea of ​​applying blockchain to large-scale projects is not new, although applying it to large entities like the U.S. government is still an unproven concept. As early as 2022, the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) studied the introduction of ledger systems (such as blockchain) into daily federal use under its government IT program. The agency held the U.S. Federal Blockchain Forum in 2017 and is looking at how to use smart contracts in patents, trademarks, IT uses and foreign aid delivery. According to public reports in 2022, The Delaware Blockchain Initiative has also explored blockchain technology in public record organizations and private sector data security.

In addition to Cardano and Avalanche mentioned above, the price of Movement Labs' MOVE token rose significantly on January 28, and there were rumors that the company was consulting Musk's DOGE. The modular network has reportedly been in touch with the organization, although the relevant information has not been confirmed. Soon after, Movement Labs founder Rushi Manche posted on X to respond to the news that World Liberty Financial bought MOVE large amounts, saying: "Strategic Move reserves. We are proud to be the first altcoin and the first modern blockchain under the leadership of the new government. The platform and the first alternative virtual machine. MOVE is made in the United States.”

In addition, Trump's family project World Liberty Financial recently announced a cooperation with Ondo Finance, which launched the Layer 1 blockchain for institutions, but this cooperation is mainly aimed at the RWA track.

As of the afternoon of February 13, judging from the holdings of World Liberty Financial on Arkham Intelligence, the project not only holds ONDO and MOVE, but also holds a large amount of ETH. Ethereum, as the deployment network of the president's family projects, may also be in line with the government. In terms of cooperation, it has a certain first-mover advantage.

What challenges will the US government face when further using blockchain technology? Chainlink community contributor Zach Rynes posted on X: "It is extremely unlikely that the U.S. government will use one blockchain to cover all departments and institutions in a unified manner. You think the EPA (National Environmental Protection Agency) and the FDA (FDA) Is the ledger requirements exactly the same as DoD (DoD) and DHS (DoD)? Probably not."

He said the U.S. government will eventually use multiple private and public ledgers for a variety of different purposes, such as increasing spending transparency or automating manual processes. What can be confirmed is:

• All these different public/private blockchain ledgers need to be able to communicate and share data between institutions through cross-chain interoperability standards;
• Institutions need to be able to seamlessly connect their existing back-end systems and infrastructure to various public/private chains used by governments through abstraction layers;
• Organizations that use blockchain to automate manual processes need to access external data resources in order to use oracles to safely trigger smart contract functionality.
• A unified platform is needed to meet all of these off-chain data, cross-chain interoperability and legacy system connectivity requirements.

As Musk pushes the U.S. Treasury Department to put transactions on the chain, blockchain technology may be moving towards a completely new application field. The support of Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong and ARK Invest founder Cathie Wood adds more attention to the topic. In the future, which blockchain platform can stand out and become the backbone of government digital transformation may have a profound impact on the entire crypto industry.