NATO Innovation Competition Seeks Military-Grade Blockchain Applications

Recently, the intergovernmental military alliance North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) ^[1] held an innovation competition, calling on applicants to submit military-grade blockchain application solutions, and the submission period is now drawing to a close.

Announced in late April, NATO's Communications and Information Agency (NCIA) is hosting the 2016 Innovation Challenge, which seeks to develop "nationally advanced technological solutions." According to the organization, the deadline for application submissions is today, and winners are expected to be notified on May 20.

It is reported that NATO requires military-grade blockchain application solutions, specifically blockchain solutions related to "军事后勤", "采购和财务" and other "applications of interest to the military".

The specifics of these proposals remain to be seen, and it is unclear how much information NATO will release to the public, and NATO does not plan to present the top blockchain submissions to the public at its meeting in Estonia next month.

At least one NATO member, the United States, has shown interest in blockchain battlefield applications. Last month, the U.S. Department of Defense, through the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), released a concept for a secure information system that uses a distributed ledger.

Blockchain’s distributed data-sharing properties could have a place in NATO-directed logistics applications, where the technology could be used to pay for military goods and services.

The competition is also seeking submissions for connected devices, so blockchain applications in this area may also be adopted.

Notes (↵ returns to text) The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), also known as NATO, is an international military group established by the United States and major developed countries in Western Europe and North America to achieve defense cooperation. NATO has a large number of nuclear weapons and conventional forces and is an important military force in the West. This is a symbol of the strategic alliance achieved by the Western camp in the military after World War II, an extension and development of the Marshall Plan in the military field, enabling the United States to control the defense system of the European Union headed by Germany and France, and a symbol of the United States' leadership as a world superpower.