Digital Asset, the creator of the Canton Network, and former US House Speaker Paul Ryan’s American Idea Foundation plan to pilot a blockchain-based system for distributing state-administered benefits across three US states using the Canton Network.
The RISE program is expected to launch in the first quarter of 2027 and would combine multiple benefits into monthly or twice-monthly payments, with spending rules applied to categories including food, child care and cash.
According to Friday’s announcement, the system would automatically adjust benefit levels as household income changes and allow participating agencies to track payments, balances, spending and compliance data through Canton. Digital Asset said Canton would coordinate the rules, permissions and transactions used to distribute benefits while limiting access to sensitive information.
Ryan said the pilot is intended to reduce penalties that can occur as benefit recipients’ incomes rise:
By combining fragmented benefits, reducing penalties as families earn more, and rigorously measuring results, these pilots can help show what a modern safety net should look like.
The companies did not name the participating states or specify which benefit programs would be included, and said the pilots remain subject to federal approval.
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Canton expands government-linked use cases
The RISE program could add a public-benefits use case to Canton, whose recent growth has largely centered on institutional finance, including projects involving government securities.
In April, Japan Securities Clearing Corporation, Mizuho, Nomura and Digital Asset launched a proof of concept using Canton to test Japanese government bonds as digital collateral, including for real-time, cross-border transactions. The project was selected for support under Japan’s Financial Services Agency Payment Innovation Project.
Canton was also used in July to settle a tokenized US Treasury trade between Franklin Templeton and Virtu Financial, with Tradeweb handling execution and price discovery. The Treasury changed hands against USDCx in real time, which Tradeweb described as an industry first.
Canton’s native Canton Coin (CC), which is used to pay fees for transactions through the network’s Global Synchronizer, has a market capitalization of about $4.1 billion and ranks 23rd among cryptocurrencies, according to CoinGecko data. CC is up around 10% over the past week.
Source: CoinGecko
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