Blockchain is a highly disruptive technology. As a relatively new field, it has already captured the imagination of students with technical aptitude. Blockchain as a career has become even more exciting with its advent into military and defence sector.
Blockchain took it’s birth to support the world of finance. The world mostly associates the term blockchain with bitcoins. But the underlying philosophy of distributed ledger which makes it immutable and creates trust in digital data has a lot of importance in the field of military applications
If you look at the budget allocation of any nation, military and defence take a significant share. While most of these had been towards traditional industries, cutting edge technologies like blockchains and IoTs are eating into this pie.
Blockchain for military
In March 2019, US President Donald Trump proposed a budget of seven hundred and eighteen (718) billion USD of which a portion would be allocated to blockchain research. Countries around the world are implementing blockchain for administrative purposes. It would be interesting to see its application in defence of a nation.
Cybersecurity, secure messaging, logistics support, communication, etc. will be some of the areas in which military application research will look into.
In 2016, NATO and US Defence Research Agency had announced their intention to research blockchain as a secure means of communication. As NATO has 29 member countries, blockchain technology would be most suitable for secure communication and capturing transactions between member nations.
There are multiple use cases for blockchain in military applications. In many cases, these would be used with other cutting edge technologies like Artificial Intelligence, IoT, etc.
The defence and military infrastructures are often situated at locations far away from one another. The application of blockchain will make sure higher protection against all attacks.
Blockchain as a career
All these factors point to one thing – the requirement for people trained in blockchain technology will continue to rise in the days to come.
In addition to customized courses offered by universities and online communities, countries are now taking a proactive role in blockchain education.
The Austrian government is providing funds for blockchain education; Kazakhstan is pursuing blockchain education in the country and India is planning to educate it’s high ranking police officers on blockchain and cryptocurrency.
This is an excellent opportunity for students and other career aspirants to look closely at a career in blockchain technology.
