Philippine Senator Plans to Put National Budget on Blockchain

Philippine Senator Bam Aquino recently announced that he wants the country’s national budget to be placed on a blockchain platform, a move he said would make all government spending transparent and traceable for citizens.  At the Manila Tech Summit, Aquino said, “No one is crazy enough to put their transactions on blockchain, where every single step of the way will be logged and transparent to every single citizen. But we want to start.”

He said it would make the Philippines the first country to do so, but he is unsure what support it would get. “If we’re able to do this, I think we’ll be the first country to have our budget on the blockchain,” Aquino said.  At present, there is no formal proposal on this idea. But once formalized, the Senator’s plan would build upon the Department of Budget and Management’s existing blockchain platform, which already records selected financial documents. 

Being the first live on-chain budget platform in Asia, this initiative uses Polygon’s Proof-of-Stake network to provide transparency and consensus to the public. Recently, the Philippines also announced its proposal for a 10,000 Bitcoin Strategic Reserve. With these moves, the south-east Asian country is aiming to manage debt, stabilize its economy, and enhance its influence in global cryptocy markets.