U.S Department of Homeland Security Rewards Blockchain ID Verification Firm Over $143K

The U.S Department of Homeland Security (DHS) awarded Austrian based blockchain firm, Danube Tech GmbH, $143,478 USD under the S&T’s Silicon Valley Innovation Program (SVIP).

The blockchain firm received a Phase 1 award to develop further its Universal Issuer and Verifier blockchain. The project aims to reduce the cases related to citizenship documentation forgery and also enhance the data collection and sharing process of travelling eligibility requirements.

Danube Tech receives $143K USD from DHS

Through the SVIP program, Homeland Security has awarded a number of promising domestic and international technological companies funding to develop security solutions across a number of industries including energy, IoT, cyber security, global travel systems etc.

On Sept 26 the official DHS website published a press release confirming funding of Danube Tech to build and integrate identity verification and issuance blockchain based solutions to existing APIs. On why SVIP chose to fund the Universal Issuer and Verifier platform, SVIP Technical Director, John Anil said,

“Danube Tech is building core interoperability infrastructure for issuers and verifiers. Interoperability between blockchains is enabled by using emerging World Wide Web Consortium standards to globally resolve and find information where it exists on a particular blockchain.”

A Solution for Homeland Security

The latest S&T program funding aims at implementing blockchain solutions and creating decentralized applications to

“issue credentials digitally enhancing security and prevent forgery and counterfeiting.”

Notwithstanding, the Danube Tech’s platform aims to integrate interoperability solutions for existing DHS platforms making it easier to integrate APIs across the distributed ledger. This is set to enhance the issuance of citizenship documents, licenses and documentation of travel and overall homeland security obligations.

Over $800K in Technological Developments Rewards

In December 2018, DHS announced the launch of the Science and Technology (S&T) reward system offering up to $800,000 in rewards in non-dilutive funding to security focused companies. The reward system is classified in four phases with each phase lasting between three and six months.

Participants are required not to have any Federal Acquisition Regulation based contracts or grants totaling $1 million USD in the past 12 months and less than 200 employees.