U.S. DARPA to host workshop on permissionless blockchain in February 2019

The U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is going to hold a two-day workshop on blockchain technology on February 14 and 15, 2019, CoinTelegraph reported.

In its official request for information (RFI) posted November 19, DARPA said that it is interested to better understand the implications of technologies for distributed consensus protocols for the Department of Defense (DoD). It said:

“Technologies for distributed consensus protocols have been revolutionized by their prominent role in cryptocurrency and blockchain technologies. These technologies have dramatic implications for the security and resilience of critical data storage and computation tasks, including for the Department of Defense (DoD).

“In order to investigate these technologies, DARPA intends to hold a workshop in February 2019 based upon responses to this RFI.”

According to the RFI, DARPA is particularly interested in “permissionless” distributed consensus protocols, which it describes as the protocols where any individual may join in the computation.

“While there is a substantial amount of publically and privately supported research and development in distributed consensus protocols, DARPA seeks information along several, less-explored avenues of permissionless distributed consensus protocols. Such information could help inform a future DARPA program,” it added.

On these lines, the DARPA Information Innovation Office’s (I2O) request for information is focused on three topics – incentivizing distributed consensus protocols without money; economic-driven security models for distributed computation protocols; and centralities of distributed consensus protocols.

In December 2017, U.S. President Donald Trump signed a defense bill that includes a mandate for a research study on cyber applications of blockchain technology.

Back in 2017, DARPA was seeking a technology partner to develop a secure messaging app using distributed ledger technology for the Department of Defense (DoD) and, last May, it awarded a grant to ITAMCO to develop an encrypted, blockchain-based messaging and transaction platform for the U.S. military.

More recently, the U.S. Navy Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) was looking into the use of blockchain technology in tracking aviation parts throughout the parts life-cycle.