Could blockchain technology save Lifeline?

[Commentary] For all of the good intentions of the Federal Communications Commission, state utility regulators, and Lifeline advocates, numerous academic studies have demonstrated that the program is ineffective. The program has also been the victim of considerable fraud. What can be done? One solution may lie in the technology that made bitcoin possible: blockchain. Here’s how this might work for Lifeline. Each person that is enrolled in one of the qualifying federal programs and that does not have a phone would be assigned a wallet suitable for the service for which the person wants to use the subsidy. Each month the Universal Service Administrative Company (USAC), the Lifeline administrator, could transfer the Lifeline subsidy from a USAC wallet to the recipient’s wallet. The recipient could then use the currency to pay all or part of the service fee, depending upon how much the person is paying for service. This payment would be made from the recipient’s wallet to a wallet designated by his or her service provider. The blockchain would not recognize unauthorized wallets. Once USAC had verified that a recipient had received the currency and transferred it to a qualified service provider, miners would hash the transactions to protect the system against fraud. Based on studies of how long a subsidy is effective, the FCC could limit how long a recipient could receive Lifeline.