The US government is trying to recruit blockchain developers to consult on blockchain and bitcoin developments. This should come as no surprise considering the interest in blockchain technology demonstrated by the world’s largest banks via the R3 CEV project, and the largest technology firms via the Hyperledger Project. The biggest names in banking and technology – from Wells Fargo to IBM – have entered the blockchain space.
As Peter Todd, longtime Bitcoin developer, tweeted: “Lol, just got off a call re: a consulting gig for a US govt. project to do sentiment analysis on BTC blockchain for intelligence purposes…” Lol, just got off a call re: a consulting gig for a US govt. project to do sentiment analysis on BTC blockchain for intelligence purposes… — Peter Todd (@petertoddbtc) April 24, 2016 Of course, this is unsettling for Bitcoiners, who boisterously champion their distrust of government and centralized banking structures. There are very few individuals qualified to do the work Todd could do. As Todd points out, many of them say no “on moral grounds.”
Todd said the conversation was not a particularly long one. The government worker – who Todd had previously met – asked if Todd could get a security clearance.
“I told them I’m not even willing to sign NDA’s for that kind of work,” Todd wrote on Twitter. Todd told the government employee he was “happy” to work on finding privacy and security bugs, but only if he could publish and fix them. Todd, who has family and friends in military, intelligence and others, says he has a “high degree” of sympathy for such projects. But it’d be a big ethical violation as a dev. Todd believes the agency which contacted him is interested in large volumes of the cryptocurrency being moved unexpectedly.
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