The US Senate has passed a $700 billion defense bill this week that includes a mandate to prepare a report on cyber applications of blockchain technology.

According to Reuters, the bill provides around $640 billion for the Pentagon’s main operations, and about $60 billion to fund the conflicts in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, and elsewhere.

CoinDesk reported that the bill includes an amendment, proposed by Senator Rob Portman of Ohio, which, if the bill is passed, would call for a blockchain study. According to the amendment’s text:

“Not later than 180 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Defense, in consultation with the heads of such other agencies and departments as the Secretary considers appropriate, shall submit to the appropriate committees of Congress a report on the potential offensive and defensive cyber applications of blockchain technology and other distributed database technologies and an assessment of efforts by foreign powers, extremist organizations, and criminal networks to utilize these technologies.”

It further states that the report should also include an assessment of the use or planned use of blockchain technologies by the US government or critical infrastructure networks and the vulnerabilities of such networks to cyber-attacks.

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