In order to learn more about permissionless blockchains, the U.S. Department of Defence sent a request for information (RFI) related to these kinds of networks. Moreover, they requested information about the issues that still need to be explored.
DARPA aims to better understand how it is possible to work with permissionless blockchains without having monetary incentives. This is different to how virtual currencies work. Bitcoin miners receive BTC for confirming transactions and adding new blocks. However, the agency wants to have networks that do not offer participants incentives in monetary forms.
It is important to mention that there is an intention to understand how participants work in permissionless distributed protocols without economic incentives.
The RFI reads as follows:
“For the purpose of this RFI, DARPA is solely interested in permissionless distributed consensus protocols … While there is a substantial amount of publically and privately supported research and development in distributed consensus protocols, DARPA seeks information along with several, less-explored avenues of permissionless distributed consensus protocols. Such information could help inform a future DARPA program.”
There are several militaries around the world that are starting to implement blockchain technology. For example, the NATO has been looking into different blockchain use cases in terms of logistics and procurement.
In the United States the 2018 National Defense Authorization Act, Section 1646 calls for the assessment of a blockchain network in order to implement it for military purposes.
Other countries such as Russia and China have also been trying to implement blockchain technology into their operations.
In the past, DARPA was working on a specific communications platform in order to transfer messages on a secured decentralized protocol. According to the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD), the blockchain messaging system needs to be resilient against cyber-attacks.