American taxpayers would save a tonne of money by using blockchain to streamline payments.
Recently, 10 important legislative recommendations for the responsible growth of digital assets were published in The National Interest’s Techland section by Adelle Nazarian of the American Blockchain PAC and Alex Allaire of the American Blockchain Initiative.
The fourth of these claims is that we would substantially benefit from developing a proof-of-stake blockchain platform to distribute federal disaster relief monies, keeping in mind that fraud and the theft of federal disaster relief funds are all too often.
The American Blockchain PAC’s creator is Todd White, while Ralph Benko serves as its senior counselor.
How much money may Americans save with the blockchain? Lots and plenty of lots! (Thanks to Carl Sagan.)
According to The Washington Post, the U.S. Justice Department estimates more than $8 billion in alleged fraud just in the federal government’s coronavirus relief programs, bolstering businesses that did not actually exist or widespread identity theft by transnational crime syndicates to file for fraudulent unemployment benefits.
Almost definitely, the situation is worse. The $6 trillion in loans, grants, checks, and emergency aid, according to The Washington Post, imposed “a unique and permanent burden” on ensuring the money had been used wisely. Furthermore, “the money remains difficult to follow.”
The true offender? the outdated finance system of the federal government.
The majority of us are already aware that many roads, bridges, portions of the electric grid, and water and sewerage systems are in poor condition. less popular? Additionally, many of our public financial systems are out-of-date.
Blockchain-based corporate solutions may be configured to limit payments to authorized uses, creating a tamper-proof record that is simple to audit. Why hasn’t this been implemented yet?
When one of us was employed by the US Department of Energy in the middle of the 1980s, we saw the acquisition of the organization’s first desktop computers.
It reminded me of the moment from the 1951 film “The Day The Earth Stood Still” where troops and citizens on Earth were frightened as a flying saucer touched down on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. It’s klaatu barada nikto!
An early PC was brought into the Oval Office by the president’s staff ready to send the first presidential email back in the Cretaceous Period of technology, according to a speechwriter for President Ronald Reagan at the time.
To indicate to the president were to press Send, the White House had wrapped the Enter button in crimson (appropriately!) tape.
Jimmy Carter advised me not to press any red buttons, Reagan added as he turned to face them. Naturally, Reagan decided against pressing.
The speed of the federal government is like the famous “Speed Bump” cartoon where an aged snail tells a group of young snails in shock, “Then suddenly… whoosh! All but the fastest of your ancestors were overtaken by the glacier, which appeared out of nowhere.
Hilarious. The joke is on us, though.
Our banking system is not set up to efficiently and quickly disburse billions or possibly trillions of dollars in relief monies. There is proof that significant bleed-out happens to all government emergency payments. According to reports, foreign aid suffers more.
Payments are exactly where the blockchain shines. Even though it would not yet be possible to buy it “off-the-shelf,” a portion of the $8 billion (or much more) that was lost on R&D by organizations like DARPA, NSF, NIST, the National Labs, NASA, and other tech-savvy organizations, as well as on large-scale procurements by the Department of Defense, General Services Administration, and other organizations, would undoubtedly summon the forces of the free market to create a fantastic, scalable blockchain platform.
What is America’s and the taxpayer’s return on investment? Immense.
Computer chips experienced the same thing. Large semiconductor chip purchases by NASA significantly reduced industry prices. Chips were so affordable that they began to take the role of vacuum tubes and printed circuit boards in practically everything, from radios and TVs to computers, cars, and airplanes.
How enormous? Consider the fact that the 1991 equivalent of today’s iPhone would have cost approximately $101 million to produce. Nowadays, a supercomputer may be found in every pocket.
