Blockchain technology, which promises a radically new way of securely completing transactions between various parties, is starting to attract government’s attention after industry moves to build a base for future applications that use the technology.
Blockchain has the potential “to vastly reduce the cost and complexity of getting things done — across industries, government agencies and social institutions,” IBM Vice President Jerry Cuomo said at a recent hearing of the House Subcommittee on Commerce, Manufacturing and Trade.
The hearing, on digital currencies such as Bitcoin that use blockchain, was a part of the subcommittee’s Disrupter Series of informational meetings on potentially revolutionary emergent technologies. Previous hearings have focused on the Internet of Things, drones, mobile payments and 3-D printing.
Rep. Michael C. Burgess (R-Texas), the subcommittee’s chairman, called blockchain an “incredible” cutting-edge technology that could help address the trust and security issues “that are a daily challenge for individuals and companies in every sector of the U.S. economy.”
Blockchain is still largely unknown to government, but some organizations have started to dip their toes in the water. The Department of Homeland Security, for example, published several Small Business Innovation Research solicitations in December asking for research ideas on using blockchain in identity management, cryptography and other applications.
In January, Vermont put out a report on the opportunities and risk of blockchain technology, describing it as something the state should consider for future use, while admitting that, “at present, the costs and challenges associated with the use of blockchain technology for Vermont’s public record keeping outweigh the identifiable benefits.”
Blockchain — which in the Bitcoin application uses SHA-256 cryptography — marries the peer-to-peer file sharing techniques found in such popular applications as BitTorrent with public key cryptography to provide for a distributed network of trust that can confirm transactions are valid and record them in a […]
