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United States presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has proposed to put the nation’s 2024 budget on a public blockchain.
During his April 21 rally in Michigan, Kennedy said that putting the U.S. budget on the blockchain would allow Americans to access any budget item at any time.
According to Kennedy, integrating the budget with blockchain technology will significantly increase transparency. He exemplified this by stating, “If somebody is spending $16,000 for a toilet seat, everybody’s going to know about it.”
If the proposal comes to fruition, American taxpayers will be able to track where funds are being spent. The idea was well-received by some corners of the cryptocurrency community, with some claiming it would end corruption.
“Putting the entire US budget on blockchain would be transformative. I don’t believe in silver bullets, but this is as close as one gets to one,” wrote one X user.
Another user pointed out that “public accounting might be the best use case for blockchain tech,” in addition to supply-chain implementations.
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However, some critics of the notion claim that Kennedy is using this proposal to promote his central bank digital currency (CBDC) agenda. According to X user Jeremiah Harding, it isn’t possible for a government to track all budget transactions without implementing a “different unit of currency” like a CBDC.
Interestingly, Kennedy, who is a prominent advocate for decentralization, has previously expressed concerns regarding the launch of a CBDC in the U.S. Back in Jan. 2024, he described a CBDC as “a calamity for human rights and for civil rights.”
Kennedy is also one of the few presidential candidates who has publicly endorsed Bitcoin. Last year, during the Bitcoin 2023 conference in Miami, he announced that his campaign would accept Bitcoin (BTC) donations. The presidential hopeful also revealed that he purchased Bitcoin during the same year.
Despite being endorsed by some regulators, cryptocurrencies have remained a highly debated topic globally. Blockchain technology, on the other hand, has seen implementations across several avenues in the public sector, and regulators have been open-minded in their approach.
Read more: Kennedy Jr. to back dollar with bitcoin, if elected