U.S. to move economic stats like GDP onchain: Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick

The U.S. seems to be exploring Web3 beyond just stablecoins and crypto. In a latest development, U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said that the country’s economic data will soon be shifted onchain. The move would be in alignment with U.S. President Donald Trump’s repeated assertion to bring more reliability and authenticity to this sensitive data.

On August 26, President Trump held a cabinet meeting at the White House during which, Lutnick announced his department’s blockchain plans.

“The Department of Commerce is going to start issuing its statistics on the blockchain because you are the crypto president and we are going to put out GDP on the blockchain so people can use the blockchain for data distribution. And then we’re going to make that available to the entire government,” he said.

Blockchain, also known as the Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT), stores information in small, immutable units spread across the network instead of having it concentrated at one server. This prevents this data from the risks of leakages or hacks. Furthermore, given that the data logged on a blockchain is permanent and can not be altered — the quotient of data authenticity and transparency are also maintained.

For now, Lutnick did not provide elaborate details on his blockchain plans. He did, however, said that the department is presently in the process of ironing out all the details on how the implementation will eventually pan out.

While the U.S. is only starting with integrating blockchain into its government systems, a number of other countries have already taken the lead in exploring this technology.

In 2024, for instance, Dubai Customs launched a blockchain platform to facilitate tamper-proof data sharing that also needed reduced paperwork.

Singapore and Australia have also set up blockchain systems to verify and issue international trade documents.