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A senator from the Philippines has introduced a plan to publish the national budget on-chain, allowing residents to track government spending.
Summary
- Senator Bam Aquino advocates for the on-chain publication of the national budget.
- The Department of Budget and Management has already rolled out a blockchain platform for publishing select financial documents.
Paolo Benigno “Bam” Aquino IV, known as Bam Aquino, spoke at the Manila Tech Summit on Wednesday, advocating for greater transparency in public finance through a groundbreaking blockchain budget initiative.
“No one is crazy enough to record their transactions on blockchain, where every single step is logged and accessible to every citizen. But we want to be the first,” Aquino shared with the audience.
If realized, the Philippines could become the inaugural country to place its national budget on a blockchain, according to the senator.
“I believe we’ll be the first nation to utilize blockchain for our budget,” Aquino remarked, although he expressed uncertainty about the proposal’s political feasibility.
The Philippines has previously embraced blockchain technology in public administration. The Department of Budget and Management has introduced a blockchain-based budgeting platform, the first in Asia, allowing for the recording and publication of selected financial documents for public scrutiny.
Launched earlier this year, this platform was developed in partnership with local blockchain firm BayaniChain, along with Prismo as an orchestration layer and Polygon serving as the public blockchain ledger.
Currently, only key budgetary tools like Special Allotment Release Orders (SAROs) and Notices of Cash Allocation (NCAs) are available on the platform for secure record keeping.
There’s also no clarity on whether this platform will be scaled to support the entire national budget or if a new system would be created to facilitate a large-scale implementation.
At this stage, Senator Aquino’s vision remains a theoretical extension of existing infrastructure, and a formal proposal has yet to be introduced for discussion.
In the United States, some lawmakers have adopted a similar stance towards securing vital data on blockchain. Aquino’s proposal surfaced just one day after U.S. Department of Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick announced that his agency would begin publishing essential economic data on-chain.
During a White House cabinet meeting on Tuesday, Lutnick framed the initiative as part of the broader pro-crypto agenda supported by Donald Trump’s administration.
The Department of Commerce Secretary aims to start with GDP figures, eventually expanding to include datasets like census information and GDP estimates, available for the entire federal government. This parallel movement between the Philippines and the United States underscores a rising global trend towards government transparency through blockchain technology.
The ramifications of Bam Aquino’s blockchain budget proposal extend well beyond technological adoption. By housing the entire national budget on a distributed ledger, the Philippines would set a new benchmark for governmental accountability and financial transparency. Citizens would have unprecedented access to real-time data on how their tax contributions are allocated and utilized across various government agencies and departments.
As the Bam Aquino blockchain budget initiative advances, it marks a significant juncture at the intersection of technology and governance. While challenges regarding execution, scalability, and political backing persist, the initiative reflects the potential of emerging technologies to transform public sector operations. If successful, this blockchain budgeting system could serve as a framework for other countries looking to improve fiscal transparency and restore public trust in government institutions through innovative technology.
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