U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick announced Tuesday that his department will begin issuing economic data “on the blockchain” in the Trump administration’s latest overture to the crypto industry.
“The Department of Commerce is going to start issuing its statistics on the blockchain, because you are the crypto president,” Lutnick told a nodding President Donald Trump during a cabinet meeting Tuesday afternoon.
Lutnick elaborated that his department plans to issue GDP data “on the blockchain so people can use the blockchain for data distribution.” He said the initiative will soon be made available to “the entire government.”
What does that mean exactly? Nobody really knows yet. It’s unclear, for example, which blockchain network Lutnick plans to use to store these government statistics or how doing so will help the Commerce Department or other state agencies accomplish their goals.
The Commerce Department did not immediately respond to Decrypt’s request for comment clarifying Lutnick’s statements.
Those who have been following the crypto industry for a while will no doubt recognize the phrase “on the blockchain” as a familiar, 2018-era marketing trope that once dominated press releases and headlines. But you won’t find many people in the industry today using it unironically.
That’s because “the blockchain” can refer to any one of thousands of cryptocurrency networks—from Ethereum and Solana to Algorand or VeChain—each with its own vastly different functionality, design, purpose, and audience.
Lutnick himself has ample ties to the crypto industry. His Wall Street firm, Cantor Fitzgerald, has connections to stablecoin issuer Tether—the company behind the largest such token in USDT—and claims to custody most of the company’s U.S. Treasury reserves. Cantor is also currently exploring a multi-billion dollar Bitcoin acquisition.
The Commerce Department is responsible for various key data-collecting functions of the federal government, including the U.S. census. Such data is already made public, though, making the chief utility of on-chain data—public visibility and transparency—potentially redundant, unless there’s a lot more to Lutnick’s plan that he’s yet to reveal.