U.S. President Donald Trump has signed a defense bill that includes a mandate for a research study on cyber applications of blockchain technology, CoinDesk reported.
The $700 billion defense bill passed the US Senate in September. It calls for a blockchain study by the Secretary of Defense and submission of a report that will look into the cyber applications of technology.
According to the bill 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.”
The study would also assess the use of blockchain technologies by the U.S. government or infrastructure networks and the vulnerabilities of such networks to cyber attacks.
In August, a report from The Washington Times suggested that the U.S. Department of Defense started experimenting with blockchain technology to shield against cyber attacks. Earlier in May, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) awarded ITAMCO a Phase 1 grant to develop a secure, non-hackable messaging and transaction platform for the U.S. military.
