babsNYC blockchain testimony at 2026 NYC Commission on Government Efficiency Hearings

As we covered in babsNYC.news  Issue 01 and Issue 02, Mayor Mamdani’s Commission on Government Efficiency conducted hearings in June and July to collect citizen testimony about problems and proposed solutions regarding government efficiency. 

COGE's mandate was to review the City Charter and propose reforms that make city government work faster, smarter, and more effectively. Its primary objectives include: 

Further updates on the COGE process here  >>> COGE Public Meetings and Hearings

On July 13, Kala Philo, Founder and Senior Editor of BabsNYC.news, submitted written testimony and attended the final hearing in Queens, but did not get an opportunity to speak. 

Below is a reprint of what would have been her spoken testimony summary, and a link to what she submitted as written testimony. City staff deemed the testimony “not charter-related”; as such, it was excluded from consideration for COGE scope.

You can also find this testimony on page 652 of the COGE combined submitted written testimony, Batch 3, linked here: Written Public Testimony (July 4-17).

As much of the testimony over the last few weeks has shown, NYC's technology infrastructure is under strain. A recent, painful example is the housing snafu that caused a cascade of incorrect Section 8 evictions and a lot of suffering for renters and city employees.

My purpose in being here is not rooted in criticism, but in a lot of compassion for everyone involved. I'm an independent writer, researcher, and publisher of babsNYC.news, the only newsletter with cross-sector coverage of blockchain activity in NYC.

To clarify, the blockchain I'm talking about tonight has nothing to do with Bitcoin, speculation, or crypto markets. I'm proposing that decentralized ledger technology, also known as blockchain, is a tool that deserves serious consideration for civic tech.

Recent headlines about deed fraud have also made waves. What we don't hear as much about is that NYC engaged in a blockchain proof-of-concept study in 2021 to address - guess what - deed fraud.

In 2021, the concerns were smart, valid, and practical - energy use, disruption of legacy systems, paying with tokens instead of dollars. Since then, the tech has matured and moved past many blockers. For example, modern blockchain networks use 99% less electricity.

Another benefit is that it future-proofs our tech to retain the citizen-centric values championed by this Mayor's administration. Blockchain makes it more difficult to reverse efficiencies and citizen access to information as political tides shift.

AI has come up multiple times in hearing testimony. Blockchain can help add transparency to AI adoption and integration, avoiding AI's dreaded "black box" phenomenon.

But before diving further into solutions, is there any evidence of public demand for blockchain?

I conducted an AI-assisted analysis of the YouTube videos of the first three public hearings (Manhattan, Bronx, Brooklyn) to help group the testimony into themes.

I found that of the 101 total testimonies, a conservative estimate is that 45% involve problems where blockchain tech would be a moderate to strong fit as an improvement or solution.

Why blockchain? The testimony describes the ways people are paying the price for the lack of shared, verifiable infrastructure where multiple stakeholders can independently write to and rely on the same record.

In a traditional database, someone still has to be 'the owner' of that record; that governance model creates the gaps that lead to problems for end users.

Blockchain is built for when no single party can or should fully own the data, but everyone needs efficient access and a trusted record of transactions.

To conclude, I'm asking that the charter language require evaluation of decentralized architectures when considering tech improvements and upgrades, whether that's a new Office of Digital Transformation, as Andrew Rasiej proposed on June 11, or an expanded mandate for the city's existing Office of Technology and Innovation.

I've submitted written testimony that provides more detail on my comments and the data. I'm available for follow-up, and I have a strong network of knowledgeable, compassionate colleagues that I can tap as well. Thank you for your time. 

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Download PDF of written testimony (excerpt from full testimony document) >> download PDF

You can also find this testimony on page 652 of the official COGE combined submitted written testimony, Batch 3, linked here: Written Public Testimony (July 4-17).

Kala’s time in the COGE research and hearing appearance was volunteered and completely unsponsored. If you appreciated this post, share it with someone else who would as well!

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