Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong has urged Elon Musk to go all in with blockchain technology to audit the entire US government budget. “Great progress D.O.G.E. Imagine if every government expenditure was done transparently onchain,” Brian posted on X yesterday. “Would make it much easier to audit.”
Brian’s call comes after Cryptopolitan reported on January 25 that Elon’s Department of Government Efficiency (D.O.G.E) is already evaluating blockchain systems. Elon wanted the technology to track trillions in spending, protect sensitive data, streamline payments, and even manage federal properties, though he hasn’t really said anything else about it ever since.
Created by Donald Trump, who many in crypto circles call the ‘crypto president,’ D.O.G.E is on a mission to slash inefficiencies and save billions. It reportedly had a meeting with blockchain developers to test what works and what doesn’t, but no details have been shared by the public yet, which is quite uncharacteristic of Mr. Elon.
Anyway, Elon and Armstrong’s combined push would move $6.9 trillion of annual US government spending onto a decentralized ledger. This would be the first time in history that anything like this is happening, and the potential stakes are hundreds of billions in fraud, waste, and hidden contracts exposed block by block.
Elon’s D.O.G.E uncovers shocking contract fraud
Elon has told the public that he just wanted them to know exactly where their taxes are going, so he would expose every single government contract fraud he can find. On Feb. 6, 62 federal contracts (worth $182 million) were flagged by D.O.G.E as “unnecessary and ridiculous administrative expenses.”
But the real disaster is at the Pentagon where the D.O.G.E said it discovered that the Department of Defense couldn’t account for 63% of its $3.8 trillion in assets during a 2023 audit. The DoD has $4 trillion in liabilities, and yet somehow, their books don’t balance.
Just learned that the social security database is not de-duplicated, meaning you can have the same SSN many times over, which further enables MASSIVE FRAUD!!
Your tax dollars are being stolen. https://t.co/hSZdNY4wxf
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 9, 2025
To make things worse, the Pentagon wasted $1 billion attempting to audit its 2018 financials and still failed. Officials now expect to finally pass an audit—by 2028. But Elon’s deadline was always gonna be July 2026, so he doesn’t have that much time to wait. And the blockchain could automate the entire audit process, because fraudulent spending would be detected almost instantly with payment verification and smart contracts.
Social Security fraud is also bleeding the government dry. D.O.G.E reported that $13.6 billion in improper payments were made in 2022. These included checks sent to dead people and phantom beneficiaries. Elon’s plan is to use blockchain to de-duplicate records and prevent multiple claims from being filed under the same Social Security Number.
In an audit last week, D.O.G.E found over $100 billion per year being paid to individuals without valid Social Security Numbers or temporary IDs. Elon described the situation as “insane” and demanded immediate fixes. He claims that Treasury officials estimated half of these payments, or $50 billion a year, could be fraudulent, calling the situation “utterly insane” and slamming the lack of urgency.
After a federal judge blocked D.O.G.E from accessing certain Treasury data, the Tesla boss vented in a post on X, saying, “To be clear, what the D.O.G.E team and US Treasury have jointly agreed makes sense is to require that all outgoing government payments have a payment categorization code, which is necessary in order to pass financial audits. This is frequently left blank, making audits almost impossible.”
He continued, adding, “All payments must also include a rationale for the payment in the comment field, which is currently left blank. Importantly, we are not yet applying ANY judgment to this rationale, but simply requiring that SOME attempt be made to explain the payment more than NOTHING!”
Elon also took aim at the government’s outdated “do-not-pay” list, which blocks payments to entities known for fraudulent activities. The list can take up to a year to update, giving scammers plenty of time to exploit the system.
Meanwhile, Republicans in Congress are backing Elon’s agenda. Some lawmakers, like Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, believe that the blockchain could eliminate deficit spending, which eats up 44% of the nation’s GDP right now.
Data from independent research group DataRepublican shows that $322 billion of taxpayer funds has been funneled to tax-exempt 501(c)(3) organizations without public oversight. By transitioning to blockchain, every dollar could be traced in real-time.
The market implications are huge. Investors watching the disruption believe blockchain adoption by the federal government will trigger an explosion of opportunities. Deutsche Bank predicts that blockchain wallet users will surpass 250 million globally by 2030. Meanwhile, Wall Street banks JP Morgan, Citigroup, and DBS are already using the blockchain to their advantage.
D.O.G.E faces massive political pushback from the Left
Not surprisingly, Elon’s transparency campaign is pissing off a lot of Democrats, like Senator Bernie Sanders, who is accusing him of trying to gut critical social programs. “Elon, the richest guy in the world, ended USAID, which was feeding the poorest people in the world,” Bernie said. “Next, he’ll go after programs that impact you: Medicaid, Medicare, community health centers, Pell Grants, affordable housing. We can stop him.”
Elon made fun of him with a laughing emoji, showing again that he doesn’t care. He had similar reactions to criticisms by other Democratic lawmakers like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC) and Letitia James. For the past week, D.O.G.E has been canceling contracts across federal agencies.
In a public update, the department boasted on its X account: “Great coordination across 35 agencies over the last two days to terminate 199 wasteful contracts saving ~$250mm.” Among the axed projects were a $20 million climate resilience program in Sri Lanka and a diversity workshop titled “Intercultural communication diversity dialogue circle.”
Elon’s crackdown isn’t just about cutting costs. He’s determined to increase accountability. D.O.G.E has already deleted Homeland Security’s LGBTQI+ page and demanded better data-sharing cooperation from federal agencies.
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Source: https://www.cryptopolitan.com/coinbases-blockchain-auditing-d-o-g-e/