U.S. Customs and Border Protection is testing blockchain as a proof of concept, says official

The U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is currently testing blockchain technology as a proof of concept (PoC), a CBP official said recently.

The member of the Commercial Customs Operations Advisory Committee (COAC), an advisory committee, met in Washington, D.C., on October 3 and discussed a number of topics including emerging technologies.

Vincent Annunziato, director of CBP’s Automated Commercial Environment Business Office, said that they are exploring blockchain potential in the area of supply chain management.

“We’ve produced a hybrid system that allows public sharing of data and also maintains the security of that data. It’s particularly important for keeping trade secrets and that’s what this architecture is designed to do,” he said.

Earlier in August, Annunziato had said that the agency will begin a “live fire testing” of blockchain technology to verify NAFTA and CAFTA certificates of origin in September.

Celeste Catano, a COAC member on the committee’s emerging technologies working group, said that the testing on the blockchain solution for NAFTA and CAFTA verifications was completed recently, adding that the blockchain technology is now in the evaluation phase.

“Tomorrow we are meeting with some of the technical folks who work on the project to assess how did it go, what did we learn, what can we do better, is this the right technology for these types of projects. We hope to have some recommendations by the December meeting,” Catano added.

Annunziato further said that the CBP is currently testing blockchain as a proof of concept, adding that the agency is planning to invest a small of money in this effort to see how they make progress.

“If we find something that doesn’t work, we don’t invest anymore. If we find that it does work, then we move forward with confidence. This is new ground for us, so it’s exciting,” he added.