US Dept. of Homeland Security Seeks Information About Analyzing Blockchain

By Kapil Gauhar

The US Department of Homeland Security is interested in investigating blockchain transactions, including those which were used for privacy coins, as indicated by pre-solicitation notice published on 30th November.

DHS has released a proposal inviting interested parties to comment as well as design applications for blockchain forensic analytics for emerging cryptocurrencies. Also, the proposal calls for solutions which would help investigators for conducting a relevant analysis of blockchain transactions.

According to DHS, while previous analysis has been conducted on BTC analytics, this only covers a “limited scope in the world of cryptocurrencies.” The DHS proposal is seeking applications of blockchain analytics for privacy-oriented altcoins, for example, Monero and Zcash, which operate on private blockchain.

The document notes that the current research in the field facilitates technologies, featuring better capabilities to maintain anonymity and privacy protection. Where DHS notes that such traits are acceptable, there’s “a compelling interest in tracing and understanding transactions and actions on the blockchain of an illegal nature.”

The forensic analysis of Blockchain transactions could reportedly be approached through various ways and consider different data situation use cases, where the acceptable solution should “provide working approaches to treating newer blockchain implementations.” DHS notes that the solution can be implemented in different aspects of administration:

“Because of the significant impact in areas such as governance, data sharing agreement enforcement, and encrypted analytics interchanges, there are a wide variety of applications in government and the commercial marketplace that can benefit from successful product development.”

Pre-solicitation notice is the current document. The agency seeks to get technical questions and consultation amid the pre-solicitation period, but would not entertain formal applications by experts as well as businesses with possible solutions.

The US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, in late November, announced that it would host a two days blockchain workshop in February. The agency is the research arm of the Department of Defense.