Key takeaways:
- The US Senate Committee on Armed Services has instructed to investigate possible blockchain applications for supply chain management and other national security uses.
- The committee report instructed Austin to submit a briefing by April 1, 2025, in order to forward this endeavor.
The US Senate Committee on Armed Services has instructed retired General Lloyd Austin, the Secretary of Defense, to investigate possible blockchain applications for supply chain management and other national security uses inside the US Department of Defense.
On July 9, the US Senate Committee on Armed Services released the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) report for fiscal year 2025. The report contained detailed authorizations for programs spanning the Defense Department, the Army, the Navy, and the Air Force.
The committee acknowledged how blockchain technology may improve the US military’s supply chains and boost the country’s economic standing:
“The committee notes that blockchain technology has the potential to enhance the cryptographic integrity of the defense supply chain, improve data integrity, and reduce the risk of the manipulation or corruption of certain types of data by near-peer competitors.”
The Senate committee further requested that the Department of Defense (DOD) investigate blockchain use cases to meet national security objectives and generate data on supply chains that are safe, open, accountable, and auditable.
The committee report instructed Austin to submit a briefing by April 1, 2025, in order to forward this endeavor. The following six important facts must be included in the blockchain briefing:
“plan for pilot programs or research and development efforts to explore the use of blockchain technology in national security applications, including supply chain management, cybersecurity for critical infrastructure assets, and procurement auditability.”
Other tasks include determining the advantages and dangers of using blockchain technology for supply chain management and tracking, assessing the degree of blockchain adoption in the supply chain sector currently, as well as in other nations like China and Russia, and estimating costs and viability.
US lawmakers have begun pushing for the adoption of Bitcoin and other crypto, even as they consider blockchain implementation in the near future.
Republican front-runner Donald Trump‘s campaign website said on July 8 that the Republican National Committee (RNC) had approved a draft of a policy platform that included support for Bitcoin mining and crypto.
