Beyond Digital Access: The Economics of Trust and Verifiability in America.gov

This conceptual paper examines the lifecycle economics of the transition from unified digital access to transactional digital government using America.gov as an emerging institutional case. It distinguishes interoperability from verifiability and proposes a four-stage model of transactional maturity. The central argument is that the marginal economic value of verifiability increases as transactions become more consequential and institutionally distributed. The paper identifies provenance, auditable authorization, traceability, retention, and contestability as potentially reusable lifecycle capabilities rather than merely project-specific compliance costs.