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Donald Trump Inks Defense Bill for Blockchain Research

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United States President Donald Trump signed a $700 billion military spending bill that contains a directive for blockchain cybersecurity research study.
The bill signed by Trump calls for the Department of Defense to examine "potential offensive and defensive cyber applications of blockchain technology and other distributed database technologies."

The language is part of the wider Modernizing Government Technology Act (MGT).

The MGT is designed to bolster the government's IT and cybersecurity systems.

The blockchain study will constitute "an assessment of efforts by foreign powers, extremist organizations, and criminal networks to utilize such technologies;...[and] an assessment of the use or planned use of such technologies by the Federal Government and critical infrastructure networks."

According to the bill’s text, it would brief Congress on the cyber applications of blockchain with regards to:

• A description of potential offensive and defensive cyber applications of blockchain technology and other distributed database technologies;

• An assessment of efforts by foreign powers, extremist organizations, and criminal networks to utilize such technologies;

• An assessment of the use or planned use of such technologies by the Federal Government and critical infrastructure networks; and

• An assessment of the vulnerabilities of critical infrastructure networks to cyber attacks.

The results of the study would be delivered to Congress in the next six months.

While it is to be led by the Department of Defense, the final product would have input from other federal agencies and departments.

Observers Looking Forward to Results of Blockchain Study
Observers say the measure could spur investigation into possible blockchain uses within the U.S. government.

"Blockchain was clearly one of the technological capabilities that Congress meant for agencies to look at, and what they were trying to do was create dollars with some flexibility to them so that agencies would have their own discretion on what they invest in," said Trey Hodgkins, the senior vice president of public sector at the Information Technology Industry Council.

Others like Todd Miller, U.S. markets lead at ChromaWay, a hybrid blockchain database provider, also echoed the sentiments.

"We are excited about the MGT Act because it provides incentives to federal agencies to move away from high-cost, low performing legacy systems toward new technologies, like blockchain and smart contracts.”

Jeremy Wilcox, managing director for public sector at technology consultancy ClearEdge Partners, said the act could be a "catalyst" for the technology.

This is even if agencies were to only relay a small percentage of the funds toward the technology.
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