U.S. Department of Homeland Security Is Offering $800,000 for Anti-Forgery Blockchain Solutions

The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced on December 4, 2018, that they are allocating $800,000 in funding for blockchain-based solutions that prevent the forgery and counterfeiting of digital documents.

They published the initiative through the DHS’s unit of Science and Technology Directorate (S&T). Plans are to distribute the $800,000 in funding over 4 phases through the Silicon Valley Innovation Program (SVIP).

This initiative aims to enhance anti-forgery and counterfeiting capabilities for digital documentation, which comes from the DHS’s November solicitation entitled “Preventing Forgery and Counterfeiting of Certificates and Licenses.”

The solicitation explains the DHS’s interest in interoperable implementations of blockchain and Distributed Ledger Technologies (DLT) is to aid in the following DHS Operational Components and Programs:

• US Customs and Border Protection (CBP)
• US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS)
• Transportation Security Administration (TSA)

Commenting on this new-found initiative, Melissa Oh, the managing director at SVIP said:

DHS has need of the innovations coming from this community to ensure we are at least a step ahead of national security threats… By releasing this solicitation, we are asking the innovation community to contribute to this work through the application of commercial solutions to homeland security use-cases.

To add to the comments above, the S&T SVIP Technical Director, Anil John, provided an official statement in the press release:

The broad Homeland Security mission includes the need to issue entitlements, licenses and certifications for a variety of purposes including travel, citizenship, employment eligibility, immigration status and supply chain security. Understanding the feasibility and utility of using Blockchain and [DLT] for the digital issuance of what are currently paper-based credentials is critical to preventing their loss, destruction, forgery and counterfeiting.

Eligibility for the $800,000 Grant

Any small enterprise or startup is eligible for the grant if they have less than 200 employees and have not had a government contract totaling $1 million or more in the past 12 months.

Therefore, many of the current cryptocurrency projects we know today are eligible for the grant.

The problems that the DHS wants applicants to focus on and solve must be for at least one of the following use cases:

• Identity Documents for Travel
• Identity of Organizations and Organizational Delegates
• Tribal Identity Documents for Travel
• Citizenship
• Immigration and Employment Authorization
• Cross-Border Oil Import Tracking
• Origin of Raw Material Imports.

The startups and companies participating in the SVIP are eligible for up to $800,000 in non-dilutive funding, meaning participants won’t need to sell equity to receive the funding. They will distribute the funding over 4 phases, in which they have not yet released details of these phases.

As noted in the press release, they do not guarantee successful candidates procurement contracts with DHS or any of its components including the CBP, USCIS, and TSA.

Which cryptocurrency projects, startups, or small enterprises do you think will apply for this grant? Let us know in the comment section below?