The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has made a Phase 4 contract award of almost $200,000 to blockchain firm Neoflow to digitally trace natural gas and crude oil transiting from Canada to the United States.
The objective is to prevent fraud, so the solution uses verifiable credentials, decentralized identifiers and distributed ledger technology to address this.
“Phase 4 is the last stage of the development process and will include a technical demonstration of the Neoflow Platform. The award is recognition of the effort of our industry and DHS partners and the Neoflow team to develop a technology that will modernize the cross-border movement of oil and natural gas”, said Jim Oosterbaan, CEO of Neoflow.
While the goal of the DHS is anti-counterfeiting, Neoflow provides a full product passport. In other words, it doesn’t just prove the origin of the oil and gas but also the environmental compliance with a record of emissions throughout the supply chain.
We reported on the first award in 2019 when it was made to Neoflow’s parent company Mavennet. Apart from Neoflow for oil and gas, Mavennet has a similar solution for metals which has won Canadian government contracts.
Meanwhile, DHS announced five blockchain contracts in 2020, including with Mavennet. Two of the others have also received multiple rewards, including this year. They are decentralized identity provider SecureKey and New Zealand based credentialing company MATTR.
