Independent candidate for U.S. President Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said on Sunday that blockchain tech could play a key role in making the government more transparent—calling for a Web3 makeover of the federal budget.
“I’m going to put the entire U.S. budget on [the] blockchain, so that […] every American can look at every budget item in the entire budget anytime they want 24 hours a day,” he said at a rally in Michigan, per The Hill.
The facilitation of day-to-day payments on a publicly distributed ledger could hold the people in power more accountable, Kennedy suggested in a video shared on Twitter. In theory, anyone would be able to see how government spending takes place across what would likely be thousands upon thousands of transactions logged each day.
“We’re gonna have 300 million eyeballs on our budget, and if somebody is spending $16,000 for a toilet seat, everybody’s gonna know about it,” Kennedy said, referencing a 2018 brouhaha over the Pentagon’s purchasing habits.
Kennedy’s latest comments continue his ongoing campaign to promote cryptocurrency tech as a path to improve the nation's economy. Last July, for example, the White House hopeful proposed backing the U.S. dollar with reserves of Bitcoin.
Kennedy’s admiration of Bitcoin has been a central part of his campaign platform. He was a keynote speaker at Bitcoin 2023 in Miami and appeared morer recently at ETHDenver, an annual Ethereum conference.
Though a blockchain could empower citizens when it comes to government oversight, that very same transparency could be weaponized against them, Kennedy has acknowledged. Wary of Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs), the candidate has described the tech as a slippery slope toward financial surveillance in the U.S.
Edited by Ryan Ozawa.