Pentagon’s DARPA taps Inca Digital to map crypto threat to national security

DARPA will fund Inca Digital’s research in a project expected to lead to an analytics tool that will help map crypto’s impact and threats to US national security.  

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), a research and innovation agency at the US Department of Defense, has contracted crypto intelligence and analytics firm Inca Digital to help map the potential impact of digital assets on national security.

DARPA contracts Inca Digital on crypto project

On Friday, Inca Digital revealed that DARPA had, through the crypto firm’s government contracting arm Inca Digital Federal, awarded it a contract to research and develop crypto analytics and visualisation tool to map various implications of crypto financial applications.

Specifically, the agency’s collaboration with Inca Digital will be through a Phase II Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) contract, according to the announcement, and will see the firm help DARPA develop a “first-of-its-kind” crypto mapping tool.

The advanced analytics tool will then be deployed towards the analysis and understanding of the dynamics around crypto finance and potential threats to national security.

“Digital asset markets hold amazing promise, but also contend with money laundering, market manipulation, and state actors that may pose risks to US national security,” said Adam Zarazinski, the Chief Executive Officer of Inca Digital.

DARPA, other US government agencies and commercial companies will use the data analytics offered by Inca Digital to among other things get insight into how blockchain-based technologies are linked to illicit activities such as money laundering, sanctions evasion and terrorist financing. 

The tool will also help various regulatory groups and firms understand money flows within the crypto ecosystem.

“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,” Zarazinski added.

DARPA will fund the project, which is dubbed “Mapping the Impact of Digital Financial Assets”.