Looks like Elon Elon is taking blockchain to Washington via his infamous Department of Government Efficiency (D.O.G.E). According to a Jan. 25 report by Bloomberg, Elon wants blockchain to track federal spending, secure sensitive data, process payments, and even manage government buildings.
The D.O.G.E, established by ‘crypto president’ Donald Trump, is tasked with making government tech leaner, meaner, and cheaper. The report says D.O.G.E has already met with representatives from public blockchain networks to evaluate what works and what doesn’t.
Trump’s executive order kicks things off
The Department of Government Efficiency was made official with an executive order signed by Trump on January 20. D.O.G.E has to deliver recommendations for spending cuts by July 4, 2026.
Bloomberg’s report said Elon wasted no time, recruiting 100 volunteers before Trump even stepped into the Oval to start coding for D.O.G.E-related projects.
In December, a person reportedly pitched Trump’s transition team in Palm Beach, Florida, on how blockchain could protect critical government data and track federal dollars.
The pitch landed with Elon’s team, who believe a decentralized ledger could slash fraud, abuse, and unnecessary spending in federal programs.
Using blockchain to run an operation as massive as the U.S. government is uncharted territory, though. Blockchain efforts in corporate America—like Walmart’s private blockchain for tracking supply chains—have been hit or miss.
Many private blockchain experiments failed due to governance issues, high costs, or inefficiency compared to traditional databases.
Public blockchains, on the other hand, offer transparency but come with their own baggage. Bitcoin and Solana, for instance, operate on decentralized networks of computers, which the Trump administration has used to launch meme coins TRUMP and MELANIA.
Still, giants like BlackRock have started using public blockchains for business. BlackRock issued a money-market fund on crypto ledgers, and California’s Department of Motor Vehicles digitized millions of car titles on Avalanche.
If D.O.G.E does move forward with blockchain, the scale of the project would dwarf anything attempted in the private sector. And crypto elites are already so excited about the prospects.
Binance founder Changpeng ‘CZ’ Zhao pointed out: “All governments should track all their spending on the blockchain, an immutable public ledger. It’s called ‘public spending’ for a reason.”
And Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson said, “Well, I’m thinking this is a job for a triumvirate of Cardano, Bitcoin, and Midnight. Yo, Doge Master Elon Musk, give us a call. We’ll do it for free.”
Elon’s White House takeover
Elon’s D.O.G.E department is already embedded in the White House. The team has office space in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building and plans to deploy four-person D.O.G.E teams to every federal agency.
Elon’s close friendship with Trump plays a huge role in all of this. Elon poured millions into Trump’s presidential campaign and has become his closest adviser. Trump even knighted him as the nation’s ‘First Buddy.’
But Elon’s deep ties to government contracts, including those of his companies Tesla and SpaceX, are bringing questions about conflicts of interest. Critics say Elon’s recommendations for budget cuts could clash with his personal business dealings. Elon, for his part, says he’s not taking a salary for leading D.O.G.E.
But this guy has had a love-hate relationship with crypto for years. Also, a union representing hundreds of thousands of federal employees has already sued the Trump administration over D.O.G.E. The lawsuit said the initiative puts workers’ jobs at risk and doesn’t address systemic issues within federal agencies.
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