US military assesses crypto threat to national security

The US military’s innovation office has hired a crypto intelligence firm to assess the illicit uses of crypto assets.

Crypto intelligence firm Inca Digital has received a contract from the Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to conduct a year-long research into the inner workings of the cryptocurrency market.

The research will be used to crack down on illicit uses of crypto assets according to an article in the Washington Post. Mark Flood, a program manager for DARPA said in an interview for the article that the program “involves mapping out the cryptocurrency universe in some detail.”

The article talks about federal agencies ramping up efforts to deal with “rogue regimes”, “terrorists”, and others. It cites the Justice Department as hiring 150 prosecutors to deal with the expected crypto prosecutions and enforcements, and it labels the cryptocurrency sector as a “shadow financial system” that is a fruitful venue for “sophisticated criminals”.

Flood, who is a former Treasury official also made the following statement:

“We just need to acknowledge that the financial sector may be a component of modern warfare going forward, and anything we can do to reinforce and protect the U.S. financial sector and our allies’ financial sectors is beneficial,”

Opinion

Using the mainstream media to trumpet that a military agency will put so much effort into trying to squash the life out of the small libertarian private digital assets sector that is crypto, is par for the course.

To spend what is probably tax-payer’s money on a venture to try to map out every nook and cranny in the sector, when it is coming out with incredible innovations that are changing the face of finance with increasing rapidity, appears to be just an effort to throw as many spanners in the works as possible in order to slow it down to match the snail’s pace of traditional finance.

In comparison with traditional finance, crypto is a tiny market currently worth less than $1 trillion in value. The dollar will have seen exponentially more scams and manipulations than the crypto market will ever see. 

Add this to the impending collapse of financial markets as fiat currencies are being debased out of existence and inflation ravages the poor and middle classes, then you have a failing monetary system that is throwing everything it has at fair and sound cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin.

That the military should enter the fray to try and snuff out the people’s money before it even gets properly started is a sign of the desperation that the system must feel.

Disclaimer: This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.