A Philippine Senator has proposed putting the country’s national budget on-chain to make government spending traceable by residents.

Paolo Benigno “Bam” Aquino IV, also known as Bam Aquino, while addressing the Manila Tech Summit on Wednesday, pushed for enhancing transparency in public finance via an innovative new blockchain budget proposal.

“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,” Aquino told the audience.

If implemented, the Philippines could become the first country in the world to place its national budget on a blockchain, the senator added.

“I think we’ll be the first country to have our budget on the blockchain,” Aquino said, though he sounded unsure about whether the proposal would gain enough political traction to move forward.

The Philippines is no stranger when it comes to blockchain implementation across public administration. In fact, the country’s Department of Budget and Management has already developed an on-chain budget platform, which is the first of its kind in Asia, that records and publishes select financial documents for public verification.

Launched earlier this year, the platform was developed by local blockchain infrastructure firm BayaniChain in collaboration with Prismo, an orchestration layer, and Polygon, which acts as the public blockchain ledger.

At the moment, only Key budgetary instruments like Special Allotment Release Orders (SAROs) and Notices of Cash Allocation (NCAs) are uploaded on the platform for tamper-proof record keeping. 

Also, there’s no information available on whether this same platform would be scaled up to accommodate the entire national budget or whether a new system would be built from the ground up to support such a large-scale rollout.

For now, Senator Aquino’s vision remains a conceptual extension of the current infrastructure, and a formal proposal is yet to be presented for consideration.

Bam Aquino blockchain budget: Philippines taking cues from the US?

Elsewhere in the United States, some lawmakers have taken a similar position when it comes to securing key information on the blockchain. Aquino’s proposal came just a day after the U.S. Department of Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said his agency would start publishing important economic data on-chain.

During a White House cabinet meeting on Tuesday, Lutnick positioned the initiative as part of the broader pro-crypto agenda championed by Donald Trump’s administration. 

The Department of Commerce Secretary plans to start with GDP figures, and eventually include other datasets such as census information and GDP estimates that will be accessible for the entire federal government. This parallel development between the Philippines and the United States highlights a growing global trend toward government transparency through blockchain technology.

The implications of the Bam Aquino blockchain budget proposal extend far beyond mere technological adoption. By placing the entire national budget on a distributed ledger, the Philippines would establish a new standard for government accountability and financial transparency. Citizens would gain unprecedented access to real-time information about how their tax money is allocated and spent across different government agencies and departments.

As the Bam Aquino blockchain budget proposal continues to evolve, it represents a pivotal moment in the intersection of technology and governance. While challenges regarding implementation, scalability, and political support remain, the initiative demonstrates how emerging technologies can potentially reshape public sector operations. If successful, this blockchain budget system could serve as a model for other nations seeking to enhance fiscal transparency and rebuild public trust in government institutions through technological innovation.