The tax code is a set of rules. Well, actually it’s multiple overlapping iterative sets of rules. This is horribly complicated for humans to understand, but computers are great at dealing with rules.

Computers can already interpret the tax code: Tax preparation software is simply a translation of the tax code into a program that asks questions and prints out a tax return according to the rules.

Tax returns are not just generated by computers; they’re also read by computers. The IRS uses a computer review system to automatically process returns and issue adjustment notices. Human eyeballs almost never audit any returns.

Sanity-preserving people gave up on understanding the tax code years ago. All that’s left is a set of rules applied by computers, and enforced by computers. Time to put it all on the blockchain.

(There are obvious privacy-related reasons why no one would want their tax returns on the blockchain, but I hope that someone creates an H&R Blockchain just to use that name.)