Donald Trump Has Signed a Defense Bill Authorizing a Blockchain Study
Kale Havervold
I have been interested in cryptocurrency and blockchain technology for years and have written dozens of articles in the blockchain space. I love to keep up with all the latest news in the industry and love to entertain, educate and inform with my articles.
Blockchain technology as a whole has been blowing up in recent months as it has the potential to change and innovate many different industries. Even the government itself is recognizing the potential, as President Donald Trump has recently signed a $700 billion military spending bill. This bill includes an order to perform a blockchain cyber security research study.
The bill passed through senate in late September and calls for the Department of Defense (and other agencies and organizations as well) to look into 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.”
Simply, the study will look at the various applications and capabilities of the blockchain technology when it comes to the military (both offensively and defensively). The study will also aim to see how others around the world (both good and bad) are using these technologies and how far along they are with them. The study also wants to look at how secure the technology is, and how susceptible it is to cyber-attacks, as the government doesn’t want to have to worry about security issues when dealing with the new technology. Of course, the study will also take a peek at what else the federal government could potentially use the technology for in the future.
The study itself is a part of the larger MGT (Modernizing Government Technology) Act, which looks to mainly focus on the government’s cyber security and IT systems, and how they can be improved over time to ensure the government is keeping up with what’s the best and most secure technology to use. According to the text of the study, the results of the study are set to be delivered by Congress sometime within the next 6 months or so. That is a good sign as it means we don’t have to wait too long at all to find out the results of this study and see how the government may plan to use blockchain technology going forward.
While it is clearly focused on the military applications and is still a small element of a much larger law for now, it is still quite exciting for blockchain technology as it could be the catalyst that could help lead to even bigger uses and applications for blockchain technology in the U.S. government and beyond, as nearly everyone could benefit from blockchain technology in one way or another.
With cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, Ethereum and Litecoin skyrocketing in value over the past few weeks, there are more eyes on blockchain technology and its features and benefits than ever before. You would be hard pressed to find a news organization that isn’t talking about cryptocurrency and opening up the technology to millions of new potential users. This is exactly the kind of thing that could help this technology blow up. It has uses in many different areas including finance, government, IT, security, marketing and so much more. The more people know about it, the more demand there is and therefore, the more blockchain technology will continue to explode in terms of growth.
In conclusion, while this blockchain study being authorized by the U.S. government is a great thing and is a big step forward, we hope it is only but the start of a blockchain revolution, whereas people can finally see how so many out-dated transactions, technologies and industries can be brought into the 21st century with the help of blockchain technology.
