The Department of Homeland Security's Science and Technology Small Business Innovation Program has released the names of the of the small businesses who have been awarded grants to further develop blockchain research to help enhance the security of digital identity among other things.
The SBIR program was created in 1982, and is a public-private partnership between private business and the U.S. government. The program grants funding to small businesses (less than 500 employees) for providing research and new technologies to help further the abilities of the US government. The most recent interest of the government being blockchain technology. Here's a a couple things the DOHS is working on;
DARPA wants to incorporate blockchain tech in order to produce a secure messaging service.
NATO is attracted to block tech for military logistics, and, procurement and finance.
The US government has obviously become aware of the wealth of opportunities the blockchain has to offer, for example a high level of security and privacy. This gives them the ability to hold their information in a heavily secure environment.
Here is a list of the recipients and what they are working on.
https://www.dhs.gov/science-and-technology/news/2016/08/12/news-release-dhs-st-awards-13-million-small-businesses-cyber
The question I have is, Does this give the government more availability in shielding their work from the citizens eye? Or does this give the government a higher level of security? Please share your thoughts and follow me!