RISE pilot set for 2027 launch
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 program, called RISE, is expected to launch in the first quarter of 2027.
Friday’s announcement said the system would combine multiple benefits into monthly or twice-monthly payments and apply spending rules to categories including food, child care and cash. Digital Asset said Canton would coordinate the rules, permissions and transactions used to distribute benefits while limiting access to sensitive information.
Income changes would update benefits automatically
The announcement said benefit levels would automatically adjust as household income changes. Participating agencies would also be able to track payments, balances, spending and compliance data through Canton. Ryan said the pilot is meant to reduce penalties that can occur as benefit recipients’ incomes rise.
The companies did not name the participating states or specify which benefit programs would be included. They said the pilots remain subject to federal approval.
Canton keeps adding 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), 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. CC is up around 10% over the past week.