There were discussions this was going to happen.
Earlier in the week, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick mentioned that the department was going to post its GDP numbers on blockchain. This was part of a larger embracing of the new technology, including crypto.
While the financial aspects of this technology gets all the attention, blockchain is being overlooked. That is until now.
We are perhaps seeing a new era whereby people realize the value of data immutability and the age of trust.
Blockchain brings this to the table. It offers trust in a trustless environment.
In this article we will dig into what took place and how it could shape things in the future.
United States Posts Gov't Data On Blockchain - A New Era Forming
The United States Commerce Department made history by posting its latest GDP data on public blockchains. This is now resident outside the control of the government, providing immutability.
Of course, this is simply one number that likely made it to blockchain anyway. Many numbers are generated by different sources and end up on social media. This spreads them out from their original database. With Web 2.0, this puts it in the hands of Meta and X.
Some of that data found its way to Web 3.0 over the last couple years. The numbers that are posted to blockchains end up becoming part of the permanent (immutable) record.
For the first time, at least to my knowledge, a government U.S. government agency took the initiative to actually post the data to a blockchain. Actually, the Commerce Department went further, using 9 different blockchains.
The Department embedded a SHA256 hash of the official GDP release document into transactions and smart contracts across nine blockchains— Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, Tron, Stellar, Avalanche, Arbitrum One, Polygon PoS, and Optimism. “The Department published this hash to nine blockchains, either as a memo or as data embedded in a smart contract, along with the topline figure, as each chain permitted,” the announcement explains. The measure aimed to verify the document’s integrity, and where allowed, included the topline GDP growth figure.
Oracles Chainlink and Pyth participated in disseminating the data further, while Coinbase, Gemini, and Kraken provided infrastructure support. Smart contracts were compiled using Solidity v0.8.30 for Ethereum’s Prague fork and v0.8.24 elsewhere. Coinbase emphasized the transparency benefits, posting on social media platform X: “We’re proud to be a crypto infrastructure partner of the Department of Commerce on this project. Onchain data = higher transparency + better accessibility.”
Some will question the validity of the data itself which is a fair assessment. Governments are known for manipulating things. Nevertheless, what cannot be questioned is the trustworthiness of the numbers in so far as being on blockchain. These are the official government stats and can be viewed 50 years from now. Anyone looking at that time can see the transactions due to the transparency.
A New Era In Data?
Are we seeing the start of a new era in data?
Government numbers are open to the public. Consider the potential of all the different levels of government posting their data on blockchain. The immutability and trust that comes from that system is a marked difference from what we have now.
Up to this point, we are dependent upon the client-server architecture. The servers are owned by the entity behind the data. In this instance, all data is housed on U.S. government servers. Ironic that the data is owned by the public (as are the servers technically) but it accessible only with permission.
Once it goes onto blockchain, anyone can access the data. Oracles can pull whatever they want simply by setting up their own server. Nobody can stop then when the blockchain is public.
Since data is central to most everything we do, both in the public (government) and private sector, could this usher in a new form of governance? Could we see more operations being placed on blockchain, laying the foundation for further applications that provide government services?
Even from the data perspective, consider what is out there and how much we have to trust in the institutions behind it.
Consider for a moment the St. Louis Fed. It is the bank that provides the data compiled over the last century. It is a powerful site for information. However, where did it all come from?
Since the data was posted on government (or central bank) servers, we have to take it as gospel. Some might be able to trace back to original source but we run into the trust issue. Can we be sure things were not changed in ensuing years?
Blockchain would solve this. If the GDP data is posted each quarter to these networks, at least we know what the number is. That will never change.
Going back to the St. Louis Fed, think about the data that it could post. This entity, in many ways, operates as an oracle for data distribution. Posting much of that to blockchain would decentralize the process, allowing other entities to provide feeds.
What the Commerce Department did might be just the start. We are going to see a lot more of this from government around the world. The distribution of data is crucial to the future of humanity.
Blockchain, in my view, is akin to the Internet. We are seeing a new structure forming that will integrate with the client-server architecture. For public information, this is something that should be utilized in all cases.