Blockchain Could Clean Up Government Spending, Philippines Official Says

According to Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) ￰0￱ Aguda the government is taking concrete steps to test whether blockchain can make the Philippine national budget more open and ￰1￱ told the Malacañang Press Corps that a working prototype will be shown to senators and representatives to prove the idea can ￰2￱ move comes as lawmakers push a bill that would put budget documents and transaction records on a distributed ledger for public ￰3￱ Moves To Build Prototype Aguda said the country has “a lot of experts on blockchain,” and that one of his tasks is to provide a minimum viable product so lawmakers can see a live demo before any full ￰4￱ also mentioned that the DICT has been experimenting with stablecoin systems to trace peso transactions in ￰5￱ say he will ask President Ferdinand Marcos ￰6￱ certify the related bill as urgent

signaling that the executive branch may press for faster ￰7￱ Bill 1330 titled the “Philippine National Budget Blockchain Act,” would require the executive branch Congress and local governments to upload and publish their budget transactions on a ￰8￱ enacted

citizens would be able to follow allocations bids disbursements and contracts on a publicly visible ￰9￱ bill also aims to borrow features from the Full Disclosure Bill so people can compare contracts and expense ￰10￱ Transparency & Security At a Senate hearing on SB1330

the Committee on Science and Technology discussed how blockchain might help expose delays or anomalies in ￰11￱ Aquino told the panel that placing records on a public ledger could make budget processes “transparent honest and secure.” Advocates say the visible chain would let ordinary citizens track where funds move and spot mismatches faster than current systems ￰12￱ Expert Casts Doubt On Blockchain Budget Push Not everyone is sold on the ￰13￱ Hilbay former Solicitor General and now dean at Silliman University College of Law

asked plainly: “Do we really need to put the budget on a blockchain?” He warned that what starts as a promise of openness could turn into a centralized database held on a few servers run by ￰14￱ also pointed to cost concerns saying the plan allocates PhP500 million ($8.6 million) as an initial expense and he argued that smart contracts and validator nodes add complexity and new technical ￰15￱ said the DICT will not tap public funds for the prototype and that private groups have already offered ￰16￱ image from N90 chart from TradingView