A memorandum published by the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has named “blockchain managers” among the nation’s “essential critical infrastructure” workers.
On March 19, the DHS’ Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) published a memo emphasizing the “special responsibility” of workers within a “critical infrastructure industry” to maintain normal working schedules amid the intensifying coronavirus lockdown.
Blockchain named alongside healthcare and pharma as “critical infrastructure industries”
The document names blockchain managers alongside healthcare, pharmaceuticals, and food supply as “critical infrastructure industries.”
The inclusion of blockchain managers on CISA’s list may indicate the DHS’s recognition of the potential for distributed ledger technologies (DLT) to be employed in coronavirus relief efforts.
The role of blockchain technology in responding to the coronavirus threat
In China, blockchain technology has been deployed in more than 20 applications, contributing to government efforts to contain the spread of COVID-19. These include applications which manage and track health records, medical supplies, and medical data.
Private-public initiatives involving blockchain have also proven effective, such as Alipay’s DLT platform, which allows charitable donations to be tracked by the public.
In Hong Kong, insurers have looked to DLT as a way to streamline the paperwork processes surrounding medical claims, with Ant Financial launching a ‘collective-claims’ platform to speed-up processing times.