CIA’s New Research Lab to Study Blockchain

Sep 21, 2020 at 17:52 UTC

The cryptographic puzzle/statue “Kryptos” at CIA headquarters. (Carol Highsmith/Library of Congress)

CIA’s New Research Lab to Study Blockchain

The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) launched a new research and develop laboratory on Monday that features blockchain technology among its focus areas.

CIA Labs’ webpage said the labs will research “distributed ledger/blockchain-enabled technologies” alongside other tech stacks: wireless telecommunications, quantum computing, artificial intelligence and data analytics, to name a few.
Officers who develop tech inventions in the lab will be permitted to patent, disclose and partially profit from their work, according to MIT Technology Review.
MIT’s reporting notes the labs will give CIA a useful incentive to woo tech talent that might otherwise turn to Silicon Valley’s giants.
That the CIA, one of the U.S. intelligence community’s two code-breaking hubs, would take an interest in researching a technology secured by cryptography should come as no surprise to observers.
The Block first reported CIA Labs’ blockchain focus.

CIA’s New Research Lab to Study Blockchain

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