Pentagon Teams Up With Inca Digital To Research Crypto Risks

The US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has hired Inca Digital, a digital asset data and analytics provider, to look into cryptocurrency risks to national security.

DARPA, the research and development agency of the U.S. Department of Defense, will look into activity related to the financial applications of distributed ledgers, CoinDesk reported Friday (Sept. 23).

The agency gave Inca Digital a Phase II Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) for the issue, with which Inca will develop a crypto ecosystem mapping tool to analyze risk from crypto.

That will help both the US government and the private sector understand how crypto could be connected to crimes like money laundering, terrorist financing and sanction evading. It will also see how crypto affects traditional finance systems and vice versa, per the report.

“Given the increasing prevalence of digital assets, 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,” Adam Zarazinski, CEO of Inca, said.

DARPA’s contract further demonstrates the concerns government agencies have over crypto being used to fund crime, terrorism, rogue states and other malevolent actors, as well as their desire to get pro-active in thwarting them.