Digital Asset and the American Idea Foundation have tapped the Canton Network to power a three-state pilot that would consolidate and monitor U.S. social benefits — a project set to begin in the first quarter of 2027, pending federal approvals. The partners said Friday they will back three states as they prepare to test RISE (Resources for Independence, Stability, and Employment), a program designed to streamline fragmented public benefits into simpler, more navigable monthly support. Digital Asset — the creator of the Canton Network — will supply the distributed-ledger technology to handle enrollment, payments, compliance and reporting. The American Idea Foundation, a Wisconsin nonprofit founded by former U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan, is leading the programmatic side. Why this matters Benefit programs today often operate in silos: separate eligibility rules, reporting windows, payment dates and income thresholds can confuse recipients and create harmful “cliffs” where small earnings cause abrupt loss of support. The RISE prototype would allow states to consolidate multiple benefit streams into one or two monthly disbursements, while keeping each program’s rules intact by assigning funds to categories such as food, child care and cash. How Canton would be used Under the proposed model, Canton would coordinate the rules and permissions that govern each payment, verify recipients’ identities and participation requirements, offer mobile access, and apply spending restrictions as needed. The system would also automatically recalculate benefit levels as household income changes to reduce sudden drops in assistance when beneficiaries enter the workforce or earn more — a core goal of the pilots. Digital Asset says the network preserves privacy while enabling authorized parties to view the information they need. Authorized agencies would be able to see deposits, purchases, balances, declined transactions and spending by category rather than maintaining separate records for each program. Nonprofit case managers and independent researchers would get role-based access to relevant data. Government dashboards would report enrollment, pending approvals, completed tasks, payment eligibility and the total value of funds distributed — with access limited by permissions. Transaction records would create an auditable trail, giving agencies the ability to monitor compliance and flag payments that don’t meet program conditions. “Canton allows approved participants to coordinate transactions and share rules while retaining the privacy and control required by institutions,” said Yuval Rooz, Digital Asset’s co-founder and CEO. He noted the RISE pilots would apply the network’s permissioned model to public-benefit administration rather than capital-market settlement. Evaluation and scope The evaluation phase will track outcomes such as employment, earnings, benefit use, education and training participation, housing and household stability. Unlike after-the-fact audits, governments and independent evaluators would receive transaction and compliance data continuously during the pilot to measure effects in near real time. The three-state trial’s findings will inform future pilots; the partners said later versions could adapt to different state rules, case-management systems and benefit structures, but they did not identify the states, the federal agencies involved, or a timeline for expansion. Paul Ryan framed the pilots as a test of a modern safety net: “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,” he said. Canton’s track record and market links Canton has previously focused on regulated financial transactions where participants need to share selected information without publishing full records on a public ledger. Recent projects include a private stablecoin settlement proof-of-concept with Visa and Brale using SBC, and repo and digital-collateral trials in Japan with Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, Digital Asset and other market infrastructure firms. Interstice Digital also launched a cross-chain swap engine connecting Canton to Ethereum, Solana and Robinhood Chain, with FalconX providing liquidity. Investors already have a regulated market link to Canton via 21Shares’ Nasdaq-listed ETF (ticker TCAN), launched in May and described as the first U.S. ETF tied to Canton Coin. The fund has a 0.50% gross expense ratio; 21Shares noted that institutions including Goldman Sachs, Microsoft and Deutsche Bank have participated in network testing or governance processes, while clarifying that such involvement is not an endorsement of the token or ETF. Market snapshot As of Aug. 21, Canton Coin traded near $0.107 with a market capitalization of about $4.2 billion, ranking it roughly 23rd among cryptocurrencies and reflecting a roughly 9% price gain over the prior seven days. Next steps The pilot remains conditional on federal sign-off and state participation. If approved, the RISE trials will be watched closely by policymakers and the crypto/fintech community alike as a test case for whether permissioned ledger technology can safely modernize public-benefit delivery while preserving privacy and accountability. Read more AI-generated news on: undefined/news