What on this planet is occurring with DOGE?
The Musk led Division of Authorities Effectivity is slashing funding, canceling contracts and letting 19-year-old hackers entry delicate monetary knowledge.
We’ve by no means seen something like this within the U.S. earlier than, and it may be disconcerting.
However I consider there’s a technique to this insanity.
Elon Musk has made a profession out of disrupting industries — fee methods, electrical automobiles, house journey, social media…
And now he has his sights set on one thing a lot larger…
The way in which the U.S. authorities operates.
I consider that after Musk finishes his slash-and-burn marketing campaign to establish wasteful authorities spending, his subsequent transfer might be to begin placing authorities providers on the blockchain.
And that might find yourself being an incredible factor for the nation.
Why Blockchain?
The U.S. authorities isn’t precisely identified for being cutting-edge in the case of know-how.
Bureaucratic pink tape, outdated methods and inefficient spending have plagued federal operations for many years.
That’s the place the blockchain is available in.
A blockchain-based system might observe federal spending in real-time, decreasing waste and making authorities funds extra clear.
It might additionally enhance cybersecurity, making delicate knowledge tougher to tamper with.
And with sensible contracts — self-executing agreements written in code — processes like grant administration and procurement might develop into extra environment friendly, slicing down on paperwork and human error.
One firm being thought of for this transformation is Motion Blockchain.
Musk’s workforce is evaluating Motion alongside different public blockchains to see which might work greatest for presidency wants.
Motion is a Layer 2 resolution on Ethereum, which means it’s constructed on prime of Ethereum’s foremost blockchain to deal with transactions extra effectively.
It makes use of zero-knowledge rollups, a know-how that bundles a number of transactions collectively and processes them off-chain earlier than verifying them on the principle Ethereum blockchain.
This enhances safety whereas considerably growing the variety of transactions the community can deal with.
And Musk isn’t the only voice advocating for blockchain in authorities.
President Trump has been very vocal in his second time period about supporting crypto-friendly insurance policies.
As I predicted, he already signed an govt order rolling again Biden’s harsher crypto insurance policies and establishing a working group devoted to digital property and blockchain purposes.
However in the case of Trump’s motivations, all you actually need to do is comply with the cash.
Just lately, Trump’s World Liberty Monetary (WLFI) acquired Motion Blockchain’s token, MOVE, for its decentralized finance venture.
That transfer despatched the token’s worth up by 15%.
And it tells me that there’s actual momentum behind the thought of placing authorities providers on the blockchain.
However is blockchain actually the answer to authorities inefficiency, or is it simply one other tech buzzword getting swept up in political ambitions?
The Advantages of a Blockchain Authorities
There’s rather a lot to love in regards to the concept of utilizing blockchain for public providers.
One main benefit is transparency and accountability.
Each transaction on a blockchain is recorded completely, making it tougher for funds to vanish as a result of mismanagement or fraud.
Effectivity additionally improves with blockchain as a result of automated sensible contracts can get rid of pointless steps in authorities processes. This has the extra good thing about decreasing prices and rushing up operations.
Then there’s the good thing about elevated safety. Conventional databases are weak to cyberattacks, however blockchain’s decentralized nature makes it considerably tougher for hackers to change knowledge.
However what would authorities providers on the blockchain really appear like for you?
A blockchain system might permit completely different authorities businesses to seamlessly alternate knowledge, decreasing redundancy and miscommunication.
And for those who’ve ever had a problem together with your social safety verify or your driver’s license, then you understand how a lot enchancment is required in these areas.
In an ideal world, a blockchain-based id system would permit residents to securely handle their digital identities, making all the things from tax submitting to social providers entry extra environment friendly.
In fact, no know-how is ideal, and there are vital hurdles to creating blockchain work for the general public sector.
Scalability is a significant difficulty. As extra customers be part of a blockchain community, transaction instances can decelerate.
In the event you’ve ever tried to commerce bitcoin throughout instances of excessive demand, you’ve seemingly seen how community congestion intensifies and affirmation instances take longer.
And the large quantities of information the federal authorities handles might put an actual pressure on present blockchain methods.
Regulatory uncertainty is one other problem as a result of implementing blockchain would require coverage modifications, authorized frameworks and compliance measures that simply don’t but exist.
However I consider that’s a part of why Trump issued his govt order making a workforce that may lower by means of this pink tape quicker than we normally see occurring within the federal authorities.
In fact, there’s nonetheless the problem of integrating blockchain with current authorities methods.
That’s certain to be complicated and time-consuming because the federal authorities isn’t precisely identified for fast tech adoption.
However with sufficient manpower behind an initiative like this something is feasible.
When it comes right down to it, the most important difficulty the Trump administration faces is perhaps convincing the general public that that is the proper step ahead.
Right here’s My Take
Trump has tasked Musk and DOGE to radically alter the way in which our authorities operates.
In some ways, this initiative might backfire terribly.
In different methods — particularly if this administration can set up a leaner, extra environment friendly strategy to authorities — it might be unbelievable.
There’s even discuss of returning among the spending cuts recognized by DOGE instantly again to the general public.
Placing authorities providers on the blockchain has the potential to revolutionize the way in which authorities features.
Trump’s push for crypto-friendly insurance policies and the rising momentum on this house recommend that we could also be originally of a significant shift.
However for now, the thought of a blockchain-powered authorities remains to be in its early levels.
I consider that change is inevitable.
The massive query is: Do now we have the desire to make the daring leap needed for these modifications to occur?
Regards,
Ian KingChief Strategist, Banyan Hill Publishing