US to publish economic data on blockchain, Commerce chief says

US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said the Department of Commerce will begin publishing economic statistics, including gross domestic product (GDP) data, on the blockchain.

Lutnick made the announcement during a White House cabinet meeting on Tuesday, describing the effort as a move to expand blockchain-based data distribution across government agencies. Speaking to US President Donald Trump and other government officials, he said:

Lutnick said the initiative will begin with GDP figures and could expand across federal departments after the Commerce Department finishes “ironing out all of the details” for the implementation.

Global adoption shows blockchain’s potential for governments

Other governments have already adopted the technology in public administration.

In 2016, Estonia’s government integrated Guardtime’s KSI blockchain into its e-Health system to secure over a million patient records. The same infrastructure now underpins parts of its digital ID network, making the Baltic nation an early pioneer.

In 2018, the European Commission and the European Blockchain Partnership launched the European Blockchain Services Infrastructure (EBSI), a permissioned network built on Hyperledger Besu. Member states such as France, Slovenia and Denmark host validator nodes, giving it a decentralized structure designed to deliver cross-border public services that are verifiable and trustworthy.

In 2021, Singapore and Australia trialed a blockchain system to issue and verify cross-border trade documents, reducing paperwork and cutting costs. And in 2024, California’s Department of Motor Vehicles digitized 42 million car titles on a permissioned Avalanche blockchain to curb lien fraud and streamline vehicle transfers.

Before his fallout with US President Donald Trump, Elon Musk floated the idea of running parts of the US government on the blockchain, a proposal that drew comparisons to Europe’s EBSI project.

Blockchain can record data, but can’t control its accuracy

The plan comes as Trump has repeatedly questioned the reliability of US economic data. 

In April, he downplayed a 0.3% first-quarter GDP contraction as a tariff-driven blip, and in May, he dismissed a Congressional Budget Office forecast of 1.8% growth as biased while predicting the economy could expand by as much as 9%.

On Aug. 1, Trump fired Bureau of Labor Statistics Commissioner Erika McEntarfer after a July jobs report showed only 73,000 new positions and sharp downward revisions to earlier months, accusing her of releasing “rigged” data and sparking alarm among economists.

As Cointelegraph has reported, blockchain offers governments advantages for handling data, from tamper-proof recordkeeping and secure digital identities to transparent information sharing and auditable transactions. 

However, while the technology can secure how data is stored and shared, it does not address the accuracy of the data itself.

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