Elon Musk, spearheading the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) initiative, has been brainstorming with close allies about using digital ledgers to reduce and make government spending more transparent. According to insiders, discussions have included taking advantage of blockchain to track federal expenditures, protect data, enable payments, and even manage buildings (whatever that means).
Sources familiar with the talks say people connected to DOGE have reportedly met with representatives of various public blockchains to assess their technologies.
Musk has already recruited around 100 volunteers to write code for his projects before Trump’s inauguration. He continues to actively hire “all competent and caring individuals” to join the D.O.G.E. team.
The DOGE Team is looking for world-class talent to work long hours identifying/eliminating waste, fraud, and abuse. These are full-time, salaried positions for software engineers, InfoSec engineers, financial analysts, HR professionals, and, in general, all competent/caring…
— Department of Government Efficiency (@DOGE) January 26, 2025
This initiative is part of Musk’s broader vision to eliminate trillions of dollars from the federal budget and enhance government accountability through transparency.
According to posts from the newly-formed department, the team has already managed to cut federal expenses by approximately half a billion dollars using their DEIA plan.
In the first 80 hours, approx $420M of current/impending contracts have been cancelled. 2 leases have also been cancelled.
— Department of Government Efficiency (@DOGE) January 24, 2025
Initial focus is mainly on DEI contracts and unoccupied buildings.
DEIA (diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility) is a response to a federal initiative addressing issues faced by underserved or underrepresented groups through real, actionable steps.
Does this really require a blockchain?
In 2019, Gartner forecasted that nearly 90% of existing enterprise blockchain platforms would require updates or replacements by 2021 to remain competitive and secure.
Several years ago, major companies like Walmart began experimenting with blockchain. Most of these projects utilized private blockchains, which kept transactions hidden from public view. Often organized by consortia, these initiatives proved difficult to manage and eventually stalled.
Sam Hammond, chief economist at the Foundation for American Innovation, questioned whether blockchain is necessary for this purpose. He suggested traditional databases could serve similar functions with fewer downsides. However, he acknowledged that an internal government blockchain could securely and transparently track spending, documents, and contracts.
Applying blockchain to a massive operation like the U.S. government, however, remains unproven.
Why Could This Work With Musk?
As eccentric as Musk may be, it’s hard to deny his track record of turning ambitious and seemingly impossible ideas into reality.
Here’s a quick rundown of things no one accomplished before Musk:
- No one attempted full-scale brain-computer interface projects (Neuralink) to treat neurodegenerative diseases and enhance human capabilities.
- No one launched a satellite network to provide high-speed internet worldwide, even in the most remote locations (Starlink).
- No one built gigafactories to scale electric vehicle production globally.
- No one turned electric cars into a mass-market phenomenon, making them desirable and trendy worldwide.
- No one successfully reused rockets by catching them in midair. Space exploration, before Musk, was never in private hands.
- No one seriously proposed tunnels for urban transport as an alternative to traffic jams or developed Hyperloop technology.
- No one scaled up solar panel production and integrated home battery systems to make sustainable energy accessible to regular households.
And the key argument is that before Musk, no one simultaneously managed such large-scale projects across multiple radically different industries, from transportation and space exploration to energy and medicine, achieving breakthroughs in all of them.
So, if DOGE under Musk’s leadership were to implement blockchain across U.S. budget operations, it would likely eclipse any government project implemented worldwide so far.
Emmanuel Ekokotu
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