Blockchain to Audit the Government
How Blockchain Technology can prevent Fraud, Waste, and Abuse
Gideon 6ix
Photo by Hitesh Choudhary on Unsplash
The U.S. Government is facing another dilemma in a world that embraces cryptocurrency. With major political parties divided over crypto-regulation, what is not receiving much attention is how blockchain technology can be effective against government fraud, waste, and abuse (FWA).
The transparency of government spending has never been apparent. Pork-barrel spending, Covid-relief, federal contractors, and foreign aid are just a few areas in which FWA abounds. The U.S. Government has proven itself untrustworthy with capital. Here are some headlines that highlight this folly:
Nearly $100 billion stolen from COVID-19 relief programs
Report: U.S. wasted $60 billion in contracting fraud, abuse
Who Won in Afghanistan? Private Contractors
Photo by Gary Chan on Unsplash
The U.S. Government has never responsibly tracked its spending- yet spends a fortune tracking the finances of its citizenry. The IRS currently has about 75,000 employees with an operating budget of more than 12 Billion USD. So why isn’t the governement held responsible for its spending? The short answer is that no one is forcing them to, and there is no clear way to do it- until now.
I am not a fan of the U.S. Government trying to issue a digital currency. It would, however, benefit our government spending efficiency. Investopedia describes blockchain as “a distributed database that is shared among the nodes of a computer network.” Everyone would be able to see every financial transaction the government performs. Every Wallet address would be labeled explicitly for the sake of transparency. Artificial Intelligence could flag any potential errors or instances of FWA. Then, a task force could investigate these matters manually.
Photo by Joshua Hoehne on Unsplash
I feel a government blockchain would re-instill a sense of trust between the government and its people. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) claims to have taken steps toward this future. Their Science and Technology page list a number of initiatives regarding blockchain technology. Among them is “Creating immutable records and audit logs … and can be publicly verified without revealing personally identifiable information.”
Change has been long overdue for government spending. The American people should be communicating daily with elected officials to bring the future closer. I also wrote an article about how NFTs can aid with this endeavor. Please check that out as well.
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All the best,
Gideon 6ix
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Sources:
https://www.investopedia.com/terms/b/blockchain.asp
https://www.irs.gov/statistics/irs-budget-and-workforce
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/covid-19-relief-programs-secret-service-100-billion-stolen/
https://www.stripes.com/news/report-u-s-wasted-60-billion-in-contracting-fraud-abuse-1.153787
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/07/us/politics/foreign-aid-freeze-congress.html
https://www.dhs.gov/science-and-technology/blockchain-portfolio
https://medium.com/new-writers-welcome/nfts-will-change-everything-68940b762e09
