The US Division of Housing and City Growth is reportedly trying to experiment with utilizing blockchain and a stablecoin for a few of its capabilities.
The division, whose duties embody overseeing social housing, has to this point mentioned the potential of utilizing blockchain to watch grants, ProPublica reported on March 7, citing a gathering recording, paperwork and three officers accustomed to the matter.
Additionally mentioned was the concept of experimenting with paying a HUD grantee utilizing a stablecoin, which may first be examined in one of many division’s workplaces earlier than being utilized broadly throughout different workplaces.
HUD, headed by Trump decide Scott Turner, has additionally been wrapped up in Musk’s cost-cutting blitz. Supply: Secretary Turner Press Office
Two officers advised ProPublica they imagine the HUD blockchain experiment might be a trial run for the usage of crypto and blockchain throughout the federal authorities.
A gathering final month mentioned a challenge the place the Group Planning and Growth workplace, which oversees billions of {dollars} in grants that help inexpensive housing and homeless shelters, would observe funds to 1 grantee on the blockchain.
One assembly attendee later wrote the necessity for the challenge was “not effectively articulated,” and a HUD official slammed the plan in a workers memo as “harmful and inefficient.” They added it was pointless and complex and that stablecoin funds would add volatility.
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At a follow-up assembly, HUD staffers had a extra combined evaluate, with some saying the blockchain challenge may contain paying grantees with crypto and one official saying it might be completed with “a steady forex.” One other finance official stated blockchain can be applied throughout the company, beginning within the CPD.
Nevertheless, a HUD spokesperson advised ProPublica that “the division has no plans for blockchain or stablecoin. Training will not be implementation.”
President Donald Trump has intently embraced the crypto trade, and the reported HUD experiment mimics the concepts of his cost-cutting czar Elon Musk, who supports using blockchain in a bid to curb federal spending.
In the meantime, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent stated on the White Home Crypto Summit on March 7 that the government would ”put lots of thought into the stablecoin regime” in a bid to “maintain the US [dollar] the dominant reserve forex on this planet.”
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