US Homeland Security’s Startup Booster Calls Blockchain Startup Hunt

The startup booster of the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the Silicon Valley Innovation Program (SVIP), has recently renewed its hunt. This hunt comes for a blockchain-based anti-counterfeiting project with interoperability features, and the renewal occurred on a virtual Industry Day that was hosted on Tuesday.

Offering Another Batch Of Use Cases

Officials from SVIP have laid down another fresh array of use cases for startups to use. These use cases include e-commerce, natural gas, and food supply chain traceability projects, as well as a proposed alternative to a Social Security Number. Another key use case they offered, is an essential worker license that was inspired by COVID-19.  As an incentive, the SVIP is laying out offers of $800,000 in funding, as well as the potential to be contracted by the government, which they used to woo the first-time federal partners of the past.

The SVIP had first ventured into the distributed technologies and forgeries space just about two years ago. The DHS itself has been focused on the private sector’s blockchain efforts for four years, in turn. With this renewed call for blockchain startups, it can be seen how far this corner of the DHS has funded and courted various startups out to build blockchain solutions. They do this for a cabinet department that’s all too eager to deploy this new technology, as well.

Demanding Results Over Concepts

Anil John, the technical director for SVIP’s current event, explained that the group is looking for global talent to solve the local problems of the US. He stipulated that this doesn’t mean that they were in the business of doing science experiments, however, showing that they want results, not concepts.

In the past, SVIP had previously thrown its support to startups like SecureKey, Factom, Digital Bazaar, and Mavennet.  The SVIP had its fingers in more pies as well, all the while trying to build the DHS in everything from timber credential mechanisms to Border Patrol camera platforms. The program, being part of the Science and Technology Directorate, already gave out millions in funding as is.

A New Arena To Compete In

John is already known within the Blockchain space, aptly called the “Blockchain Guru” of the DHS. He challenged the latest virtual event’s 300 participants to pitch deployable tools for the US Customs and Border Protection (CBD), the Privacy Office, as well as the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). These are the three branches of the DHS that are posing for the five new use cases of the SVIP.