Pentagon contracts with Inca Digital for security focused digital asset mapping tool

Published at: Sept. 23, 2022

Digital asset data analytics company Inca Digital will study the implications of digital assets for national security under a year-long contract with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the company announced Sept. 23. DARPA is the R&D branch of the United States Department of Defense. 

Inca Digital will work on a project called "Mapping the Impact of Digital Financial Assets" that will aim to create a “cryptocurrency ecosystem mapping tool” to provide information to the U.S. government and commercial businesses.

Besides looking at possible money laundering and sanctions evasion, the project will contribute to the understanding of the interaction between traditional and digital financial systems, money flows into and out of blockchain systems and other uses of cryptocurrency in areas of concern to the U.S. government. Inca Digital CEO Adam Zarazinsky said in the announcement:

“The Department of Defense and other federal agencies need to have better tools to understand how digital assets operate and how to leverage their jurisdictional authority over digital asset markets globally.”

DARPA program manager Mark Flood told The Washington Post, “DARPA is not engaged in surveillance. I’ll emphasize that we are careful in this research that we do not get involved in personally identifiable information.”

Related: Simba Chain Wins Another Contract From US Department of Defense

DARPA has been looking at blockchain technology for several years, both for its security implications and as a potential tool for its own purposes. In June, it partnered with Trail of Bits to analyze to what degree blockchains are decentralized and what their vulnerabilities are.

Inca received a Phase II Small Business Innovation Research for the project. The company is the developer of the Nakamoto Terminal, a system used by the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission for market surveillance. It was founded by former Interpol analysts in 2009.

Tags
Regulation
Government
Security
Related Posts
XRP purchasers back Ripple, arguing that it is not a security
On Dec. 22, 2020, the United States Securities and Exchange Commission filed a complaint against Ripple Labs. The complaint essentially alleged that Ripple had engaged in a multi-year, sustained practice of illegally selling unregistered, non-exempt securities in the form of its XRP tokens. This complaint, having been filed on the last day of former SEC Chairman Jay Clayton’s tenure at the commission, led to a considerable volume of public commentary, as is not unusual for SEC litigation against major players in the crypto space. What is unusual about SEC versus Ripple is the reaction from a sizable segment of XRP …
Technology / March 21, 2021
Blockchains Are an Excellent Solution for Privacy, Part 3
Some entrepreneurs have been trying to increase data privacy by combining encryption and blockchain technology. There are projects like Oasis Labs and Enigma that focus entirely on preserving users’ privacy. Meanwhile, others have been focusing on preventing data retention by companies. Thus, there is no way to guarantee that personal data is deleted in a company’s data system. Blockchain technology’s reliable consensus ensures that people’s data is used correctly. Protection against software and hardware attacks Companies like Oasis Labs, which designed the Ekiden system, run smart contracts outside the blockchain within a Trusted Execution Environment, or TEE, node to enable …
Blockchain / June 22, 2020
Who’s Afraid of Security Tokens? STO Ecosystem Starts to Deliver on 2018 Hype
The general hype circa 2018 proclaimed security tokens as crypto’s killer app. After Bitcoin fell from its $20,000 peak in December 2017, some of the more revolutionary promises of cryptocurrencies had lost their luster — especially after the subsequent collapse of the altcoin market and the mayhem of initial coin offerings. Security token offerings, or STOs, on the other hand, were billed as a more manageable, if still extreme, way of upgrading the dusty old financial systems that back equity trading. A revolution from within finance. Two years later, and that revolution in stocks and bonds has yet to happen …
Regulation / July 25, 2020
Are crypto and blockchain safe for kids, or should greater measures be put in place?
Crypto is going mainstream, and the world’s younger generation, in particular, is taking note. Cryptocurrency exchange Crypto.com recently predicted that crypto users worldwide could reach 1 billion by the end of 2022. Further findings show that Millennials — those between the ages of 26 and 41 — are turning to digital asset investment to build wealth. For example, a study conducted in 2021 by personal loan company Stilt found that, according to its user data, more than 94% of people who own crypto were between 18 and 40. Keeping children safe While the increased interest in cryptocurrency is notable, some …
Adoption / Feb. 26, 2022
Crypto and securities: New interpretation of US Howey test gaining ground
The crypto community celebrated a victory in court on Jan. 30 when the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) admitted in the remedies hearing of the LBRY case that secondary sales of its LBC coin were not securities sales. John Deaton, who represents Ripple in court in the SEC’s case against it, was so excited that he created a video for his Twitter-hosted CryptoLawTV channel that evening. Deaton, a friend of the court, or amicus curiae, in the case, recounted a conversation he had with the judge that day. “Look, let’s not pretend. Secondary market sales are a problem,” …
Adoption / Feb. 9, 2023