Two days ago, independent US presidential candidate Robert Kennedy proposed an idea at a political rally in Michigan that set the crypto world abuzz. In front of the applauding crowd, he stated that he would put the entire US budget on blockchain, making it totally transparent to the public. The idea is great in theory, but how would it be implemented in practice?

https://x.com/CitizenFreePres/status/1782400082908004369

Shining A Light On Public Spending

The mismanagement of taxpayer funds is nothing new. The government earmarks money for different programs, and supposedly spends it accordingly, but there is no way to actually verify that the funds are being used as originally intended.

Taxpayer money is often carelessly spent (on expensive toilet seats, for example), mis-allocated, or lost entirely. Uncovering these lavish expenditures is often a difficult task, seeing that these payments are all made through an opaque banking sector.

If these transactions were made on a public blockchain however, anyone would be able to verify that the money had gone where the government said it would go, without having to rely on a trusted third-party to audit the expenses.

Which Blockchain?

If Kennedy were to be elected president, which public blockchain would he choose to put the budget on? Would it be USDT or USDC on Ethereum, Solana, Polygon, or something else?

First of all, we need to consider how many payments the US government makes every day to its citizens, contractors, and employees. Unless they applied zero knowledge proofs, the government would have to put their money on a highly performant blockchain that would support thousands of transactions per second.

Even then, it would be difficult for the government to operate well if it had to share resources with all the shitcoins and degenerate gambling that's been happening on Solana and the others. The US government would likely need its own dedicated blockchain, and it probably wouldn't be permissionless.

Unlikely Election Outcome

As much as I would like to see Kennedy win the election, we shouldn't get our hopes up. Most Americans are likely to vote for either Biden or Trump, justifying that selecting Kennedy would be a waste of their vote, even though they may agree with his policies and ideas.

Taking a step back however, would it even matter if Kennedy were to be voted in as president? Crime, public debt, and decadence has pushed America way too far past the point of return, and there is no way one man can save this once great nation.

Despite America's hopeless situation, the concept of putting public finance on the blockchain is certainly a step in the right direction, and we could take the idea and apply it more practically at a state or city level.

Smaller Communities

The most likely scenario is that the United States will break up as the dollar collapses, due to years of reckless fiscal and monetary policy. As the empire falls, some states will likely adopt Bitcoin (or another cryptocurrency) to replace the dollar, while others may create their own blockchain-based currency backed by gold.

Ideally, the treasury for each community would be funded directly by a small percentage of validator/mining rewards, or some other decentralized proposal. DASH implemented this first, with its DAO being funded by a percentage of all mining rewards. The Cosmos ecosystem has taken governance to another level.

Spending decisions that used to be made by corrupted members of congress/parliament will instead be posted as proposals on a blockchain, and the token holders (ie: community members) will vote on them in a transparent manner, and everything will be 100% accounted for.

The Future

Kennedy's proposal to decentralize the federal government's budget is a bold one, and it highlights the trend of cryptocurrencies showing up more and more in both local and federal politics. Getting the US budget on a public blockchain is a far-fetched idea however, and not very practical.

The more likely scenario is that the US will split up into different autonomous regions as the dollar fades into irrelevance, and resilient communities will be built upon the foundation of decentralized blockchains and their tokens.

If you learned something from this article, be sure to check out my other posts on crypto and finance here on the HIVE blockchain. You can also follow me in InLeo for more frequent updates.

Until next time...

Resources

Which Blockchain Image [1]
Kennedy Rally Image [2]
Small Modern Community Image [3]