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The Bureau of the Fiscal Service's Office of Financial Innovation and Transformation (FIT) reported yesterday that it hired an unnamed contractor to create a prototype system for tracking and managing physical assets.
Established in 2012 through the merger of two separate agencies, the bureau is primarily responsible for borrowing money to finance the government, as well as processing inter-departmental payments and accounting.
The bureau will check whether its physical assets can be controlled and agreed in real time, as they are transferred from person to person throughout the pilot, using the blockchain to create a digital record of these exchanges.
According to the agency, FIT will explore other uses to see how the technology can be used "to improve government finance management."
According to today's announcement, the blockchain test is one of two, launched by FIT. Another will see that the bureau is developing automated programs to optimize its financial management processes.
With the pilot, the Bureau of the Fiscal Service becomes the latest agency in the US government to actively assess how it can use blockchain to improve or optimize its operations. For example, the General Services Administration wants to test the technology for reviewing contracts with IT-related suppliers, and the State Department also considers diplomatic applications.
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