US Senate recently passed a defense bill worth $700 Billion which includes the authorization for the study of blockchain under the department of defense. A massive defense package passed on 18th september 2017 has provided Billions of dollars to the US military.
An ammendment in the bill was proposed by one of the senator Rob Portman who said that, a report would be required on cyber applications of blockchain technology if it’s to be signed into law. The ammendment was agreed to be approved ahead of the defense bill’s final vote. The ammendment was described as:
“a report on the potential offensive and defensive cyber applications of blockchain technology and other distributed database technologies and an assessment of efforts by foreign powers, extremist organizations, and criminal networks to utilize these technologies.”
The study may take upto 5-7 months after the signing of defense bill into law but there may remain many steps before the study is authorized to become law. A similar bill was passed by The House of Representatives- the lower chamber of the US Congress on July, so there seems to be a need of mutual understanding and pass out a reconciled version of it.
