Beyond Elon Musk: How Blockchain Technology Can Fix Government Waste and Restore Financial Freedom | 13-Min Video
The economy is rigged and no presidential administration has addressed the rampant waste, fraud, and abuse in the system. The good news is that we have the technology to create a better system.
Elon Musk's actions warrant scrutiny, but let's not ignore the elephant in the room: the economy is rigged and no presidential administration has meaningfully addressed the rampant waste, fraud, and abuse in the system. The good news is that we have the technology to create a better system—one that connects us across our differences, unleashes our creativity, and helps us collaborate in new ways.
Welcome to our Mindful News Brief, where we explore the news with nuance, uncensored investigation, and compassion for all sides.
Watch our 13-min Mindful News Brief, Beyond Elon Musk: How Blockchain Technology Can Fix Government Waste and Restore Financial Freedom
Musk isn't without his flaws, and he's as self-interested as any tech mogul. I've even organized protests against SpaceX. There are good people dedicated to public service throughout government that now face uncertainty about their jobs. We owe it to them to repair our broken government budgets, not disrupt their lives by firing them. As former congressman Dennis Kucinich observed, "Government elites, kleptocrats, conniving with contractors, have long enabled this perilous condition, not the work-a-day federal employees."
However, the intense fears about Musk's access to our personal data conveniently overlook the fact that our sensitive data has already been exposed and exploited by governments and powerful corporations for years, with little to no accountability or widespread outrage. Striking examples can be found and verified in our news archive on privacy and mass surveillance.
Instead of having essential conversations about how our taxdollars are used that could bring us all together, we are succumbing to the fearmonging and distorted narratives so common in the media today. The Treasury access that DOGE has been granted is read-only, so public records can't be altered. After all, the mission to reduce wasteful and fraudulent federal spending does require access to government payment system information.
While DOGE's approach might seem risky, the risks of maintaining business as usual might be far more significant. The US national debt is unsustainable and has reached crisis levels. Meanwhile, our taxpayer dollars are propping up failing institutions that turn a blind eye to staggering waste, fraud, and abuse. Kucinich recently wrote in his Substack that the Government Accountability Office (GAO) reported that the US government lost $2.7 trillion to overpayments over the past 20 years, inaccurate record-keeping, and fraud. In 2023 alone, $269 billion was improperly spent.
Let this sink in for those who are getting the vapors about administrative overreach into sensitive Treasury payment systems: TRILLIONS of our tax dollars have been lost through faulty payment systems. Rising taxes, mounting deficits and loss of faith in government are the effects. — former Democratic Congressman Dennis Kucinich
It's shocking that the Pentagon has never passed an audit despite a nearly $1 trillion dollar budget. Did you know that the 2018 ruling by the Federal Accounting Standards Advisory Board (FASAB) legalized secret defense spending and allowed the government to hide financial discrepancies and manipulate public reports?
Before USAID became a polarizing topic in the news this year, it had already made headlines for years due to serious scandals. While its contributions to disaster relief and global aid are undeniable, it's just as important to consider what gets left out of the narrative. For example, New York Times reported in 2014 that USAID was used as a front for CIA regime change operations all over the world, including a USAID police training program that trained torturers.
USAID has a long history of child sex abuse cover-ups, fraud allegations, indictments, and inadvertently funding terrorists. USAID was the top funder of Afghanistan war efforts, overseeing billions in war and reconstruction spending— much of which was lost to staggering levels of waste, fraud, and corruption, ultimately lining the pockets of officials, warlords, gangsters, and drug lords.
USAID was also the top funder of EcoHealth Alliance, paying over $53 billion to the US NGO at the center of the controversy surrounding the origins of COVID. EcoHealth Alliance's million dollar contracts with the government to fund risky bat coronavirus research likely caused the global crisis that killed millions of people and led to one of the greatest wealth transfers in history. Where is the balanced media coverage and collective dialogue on these shocking revelations?
Instead of the same old partisan talking points designed by those in power to keep us divided, these times call for fresh ideas and creative solutions that could bring us all together. Rather than reflexively rejecting Musk's proposals, we're here to talk about Musk's groundbreaking idea to use the blockchain to safeguard data and track federal spending.
When used consciously and constructively, blockchain technology is a censorship-proof, transparent alternative to traditional opaque government accounting systems.
The blockchain is a digital record-keeping system that powers all cryptocurrencies. Blockchain allows for safe and transparent transactions without parasitic middlemen who exploit and prey on the poor. Crypto can appear daunting and complex to outsiders, making full adoption seem risky. But the fear of crypto's complexity may be little more than a distraction. The government financial systems we're already used to are more complex and opaque than the blockchain solutions now being proposed.
Although crypto is often criticized for its anonymity, this concern is often misrepresented. While transactions do not require personal identifiers, blockchains offer an unprecedented level of financial transparency. Unlike cash, every crypto transaction is permanently recorded and traceable through wallet addresses. Unlike traditional financial systems, the blockchain records all transactions on a public ledger that can't be fudged in any way. If the Pentagon budget was tracked on a blockchain, it likely wouldn't fail another audit.
Blockchain technology also opens the door to new models of gift economies, where people can share resources directly without centralized control. Some blockchains power censorship-proof social media networks that allow people to earn money for blogging and creating content.
Blockchain technology is also being used to improve election transparency, transform global supply chains, solve the plastic crisis, document war crimes, distribute relief payments to war refugees, and curb deforestation and pollution. Projects like GoodDollar are using crypto to deliver funds to people in need, demonstrating how decentralized finance can bridge the wealth gap.
After Wikileaks exposed US government abuses and shocking war crimes, the US government worked with financial institutions to cut off WikiLeaks' funding. But then came the leading cryptocurrency Bitcoin, which allowed Wikileaks to stay afloat for years. Wikileaks even used Bitcoin's blockchain to preserve tens of thousands of war logs, ensuring those files could never be tampered with or erased. To put it simply, te US government couldn't do anything to stop everyday people from directly supporting WikiLeaks. Decentralized technology gave them a way around financial and information censorship.
Crypto is new tech, and it comes with its set of complex challenges. Scammers and criminals in the crypto world are a real problem. Yet the Sinaloa cartel uses US dollars and no one blames the Federal Reserve for that. In fact, the transparency of blockchain technology significantly hinders criminals from concealing their activities, and studies show criminals prefer cash over crypto. High energy use is also a valid concern for the crypto industry. However, a whole new wave of environmentally conscious crypto mining is emerging where major blockchains have cut their energy consumption by 99%, requiring no more energy than any other complex computer system.
The stigma of crypto in the US doesn't exist in many countries all over the world. Reputable banks and major financial institutions are actively involved in the crypto space, bringing credibility and legitimacy to the industry. In El Salvador, Bitcoin is recognized as legal tender. To address predatory loan sharks charging annual interest rates as high as 2,300%, El Salvador adopted Bitcoin-backed microloans to support small business owners with fair and accessible interest rates.
This is financial inclusion in action, making it possible for people who don't have a bank account or credit history to access financial services.
WantToKnow.info news editor Mark Bailey has been on the cutting edge of crypto since the very beginning. He has written extensively about the potential for blockchain and cryptocurrency to transform the current system in a positive way.
In his latest Substack article below, he talks about the main reasons people get involved with this new technology and how crypto is a threat to the predatory banking system and the middlemen in our financial system who control the wealth of our country.
With faith in a transforming world,
Amber Yang for WantToKnow.info
The Money. The Tech. The Freedom. (Excerpt)
An emerging crypto economy is becoming infrastructure for a better future.
Written by WantToKnow.info news editor Mark Bailey, Free Mind Gazette
In my experience, there are three main things that attract people to crypto. First is the money. Second is the tech. And third is the freedom. Personally, I earn a little income from the sector and love playing around with the tech, but what keeps me coming back to crypto is its promise of a more free future ...
Disruptive events are always on the horizon. Companies fail. So can governments. The highly centralized legacy system could experience shocks that interfere with or take down financial infrastructure. Decentralized crypto networks are resilient to even severe disruption. Whole countries could go offline and every major blockchain would continue operating without interruption.
The political situation is dynamic and even volatile in many parts of the world, including the US. Freedoms that are taken for granted one day can vanish overnight with the passage of new rules or the appointment of new officials. And as we saw with Assange, merely exposing the wrongdoing of a government can cause that government to brand you a criminal. Once you're branded a criminal, your money and entire financial life is at risk within the legacy system.
By contrast, as long as you have the private key for a crypto wallet, the funds it contains can't be frozen or stolen by the powers that be or anyone else. And if you want to use those funds to support an unpopular person or cause, no one can stop you from doing that, either. In other words, crypto supports our natural sovereignty. It gives us our financial lives back.
Read Mark's full Substack article here.
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Reimagining the economy and creating alternative community economic systems that work for all: https://www.wanttoknow.info/reimagini...
Government waste: https://www.wanttoknow.info/governmen...
Financial system corruption: https://www.wanttoknow.info/financial...
The dark truths behind the Federal Reserve: https://www.wanttoknow.info/financial...
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Excellent handling of a subject that far too many people misunderstand. Keep at it!