U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick introduced Tuesday that his division will start issuing financial information “on the blockchain” within the Trump administration’s newest overture to the crypto trade.
“The Division of Commerce goes to start out issuing its statistics on the blockchain, as a result of you’re the crypto president,” Lutnick advised a nodding President Donald Trump throughout a cupboard assembly Tuesday afternoon.
Lutnick elaborated that his division plans to concern GDP information “on the blockchain so individuals can use the blockchain for information distribution.” He stated the initiative will quickly be made accessible to “your complete authorities.”
What does that imply precisely? No one actually is aware of but. It’s unclear, for instance, which blockchain community Lutnick plans to make use of to retailer these authorities statistics or how doing so will assist the Commerce Division or different state businesses accomplish their targets.
The Commerce Division didn’t instantly reply to Decrypt’s request for remark clarifying Lutnick’s statements.
Those that have been following the crypto trade for some time will little doubt acknowledge the phrase “on the blockchain” as a well-known, 2018-era advertising trope that after dominated press releases and headlines. However you received’t discover many individuals within the trade at the moment utilizing it unironically.
That’s as a result of “the blockchain” can consult with any one in every of hundreds of cryptocurrency networks—from Ethereum and Solana to Algorand or VeChain—every with its personal vastly totally different performance, design, function, and viewers.
Lutnick himself has ample ties to the crypto trade. His Wall Avenue agency, Cantor Fitzgerald, has connections to stablecoin issuer Tether—the corporate behind the biggest such token in USDT—and claims to custody many of the firm’s U.S. Treasury reserves. Cantor can also be at present exploring a multi-billion greenback Bitcoin acquisition.
The Commerce Division is accountable for varied key data-collecting features of the federal authorities, together with the U.S. census. Such information is already made public, although, making the chief utility of on-chain information—public visibility and transparency—doubtlessly redundant, except there’s much more to Lutnick’s plan that he’s but to disclose.
