US Defense Department: Blockchain Technology Has the Potential to Assists in Disaster Management

According to reports, the U.S. Department of Defense has purportedly stated that blockchain technology has the capacity to improve disaster relief efforts.

In a meeting that was hosted by the Troop Support division of the defense agency to understand how blockchain technology could have assisted the agency in its efforts to help residents of Puerto Ricco following the devastating Hurricane Maria in 2017, the agency agreed that “The potential is absolutely enormous,” According to a DLA report of the event. “Talk about blockchain, and you’ll hear experts comparing it to transforming trust or transactions in the same way the internet changed communication.”

At the moment, the DLA uses centrally managed systems to track logistics processes, this without a doubt makes it difficult for parties involved to synchronize data while ensuring that all trackings are up to date. But by leveraging blockchain technology, the agency can easily track data and improve supply chain while ensuring that shipments arrive on time

Marko Graham, the deputy director of the DLA’s Construction and Equipment unit while speaking on the need for blockchain technology in relief management added that,  “This is where I can see where blockchain would have been a big help [in the relief efforts]. Flowing material specifications and tracking data from the manufacturer buying the raw materials to … getting the transportation and getting it on the barges.”

Currently, the CPI is actively working on ways to improve its services. As a matter of fact, it has teamed up with the U.S. Transportation Command and shipping giant Maersk who recently signed an agreement with IBM to build a supply chain platform using blockchain tech.

According to a spokesperson from the agency, “we’re researching the technology. We’re getting as smart as we can about what it is, what industry is saying about it, what the future might look like, how it applies to supply chains and how other industries are using it. We’re doing our due diligence.”