The Department of Government Efficiency (D.O.G.E), the new cost-slashing initiative led by Elon Musk, the world’s richest man and a key President ***** ally, is reportedly exploring implementing blockchain technology that underpins Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies to improve transparency and other potential benefits for U.S. government operations and spending.
Discussions And Potential Applications
Bloomberg reported on Saturday that Musk’s DOGE agency is holding discussions with representatives from several existing public blockchains, per anonymous sources privy to the matter.
No specific blockchain networks were mentioned, although Bloomberg claimed that the newly commissioned non-government department is keen on using a blockchain to monitor government spending, stream payment systems, strengthen data security measures, and perhaps even manage US government buildings.
Sources indicate that representatives from D.O.G.E have assessed the technical merits of several public blockchain platforms for these applications, engaging in discussions about how blockchain could be integrated across various government processes.
Former Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao shared his thoughts following reports of Musk and D.O.G.E. considering blockchain to track government spending and lower the federal deficit in the United States. Zhao posited in a Jan. 25 post on X:
“Unpopular opinion: All governments should track all their spending on the blockchain — an immutable public ledger. It’s called ‘public spending’ for a reason.”
The Department of Government agency, which shares the same ticker with Musk’s favorite cryptocurrency, Dogecoin, was discussed on President Donald *****’s campaign trail and then made official after he won the election in November. Musk was supposed to co-lead the initiative with pro-crypto entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, but the latter departed this week to run for Ohio governor.
Musk has long been a vocal Dogecoin enthusiast, while ***** has debuted non-fungible tokens (NFTs) across Ethereum, Polygon, and Bitcoin. Moreover, the official $***** and $MELANIA meme coins were both launched on Solana last week. Hence, it’s unclear which blockchain(s) might be used in the potential DOGE blockchain project.
D.O.G.E Takes First Steps
On Jan. 21, the DOGE agency launched its official website and briefly featured the Dogecoin logo. The price of the world’s largest meme coin rocketed following the website’s launch. However, the Dogecoin logo has since been removed as of press time.
Should D.O.G.E’s blockchain initiative be implemented, it would likely be the biggest government blockchain project in the history of the United States.
The development, meanwhile, indicates a huge step in the ***** government’s push to adopt digital assets. On Thursday, the new commander-in-chief signed a landmark crypto-related executive order establishing the Presidential Working Group on Digital Asset Markets.
The group, chaired by the White House AI & Crypti Czar David Sacks, is tasked with formulating federal digital asset laws and exploring the creation of a national strategic digital assets stockpile. The EO also bars federal agencies from developing central bank digital currencies (CBDCs).