US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick announced that the Department of Commerce will start publishing economic statistics, including gross domestic product (GDP) data, on the blockchain.
During a White House cabinet meeting on Tuesday, Lutnick described this initiative as a step toward enhancing blockchain-based data distribution across government agencies. Addressing US President Donald Trump and fellow officials, he stated:
“The Department of Commerce will begin issuing its statistics on the blockchain, because you are the crypto president, and we are going to place our GDP on the blockchain for public use in data and distribution.”
Lutnick mentioned that the initiative will commence with GDP figures and might eventually expand across federal departments once the Commerce Department finalizes the “details” for implementation.
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Global adoption showcases blockchain’s potential for governments
Other nations have already embraced the technology in public administration.
In 2016, Estonia’s government incorporated Guardtime’s KSI blockchain into its e-Health system, securing over a million patient records. This infrastructure now supports portions of its digital ID network, establishing the Baltic nation as an early adopter.
In 2018, the European Commission and the European Blockchain Partnership initiated the European Blockchain Services Infrastructure (EBSI), a permissioned network based on Hyperledger Besu. Member states like France, Slovenia, and Denmark host validator nodes, creating a decentralized framework aimed at delivering verifiable and trustworthy cross-border public services.
In 2021, Singapore and Australia tested a blockchain system for issuing and verifying cross-border trade documents, leading to reduced paperwork and lower costs. Additionally, in 2024, California’s Department of Motor Vehicles digitized 42 million car titles on a permissioned Avalanche blockchain to prevent lien fraud and streamline vehicle transfers.
Prior to his fallout with US President Donald Trump, Elon Musk proposed running portions of the US government on the blockchain, a suggestion that was likened to Europe’s EBSI initiative.
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Blockchain can capture data, but cannot ensure its accuracy
This plan emerges as Trump has repeatedly expressed skepticism regarding the reliability of US economic data.
In April, he downplayed a 0.3% contraction in first-quarter GDP as merely a tariff-related fluctuation, and in May, he dismissed a Congressional Budget Office growth forecast of 1.8% as biased, while predicting the economy could expand by as much as 9%.
On August 1, Trump terminated Bureau of Labor Statistics Commissioner Erika McEntarfer following a July jobs report indicating only 73,000 new jobs and significant downward revisions to prior months, alleging she released “rigged” data, raising concerns among economists.
As Cointelegraph has noted, blockchain provides governments with benefits for managing data, including tamper-proof recordkeeping, secure digital identities, transparent information sharing, and auditable transactions.
Nevertheless, while the technology can secure data storage and sharing methods, it does not address the accuracy of the data itself.
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