We propose an ambitious plan to create an open standard method of tracking the chain of custody of technical artifacts in a distributed ledger called CustodyChain. CustodyChain: A Blockchain of Authoritative, Tracked, Verified, and Discoverable Technical Artifacts, will facilitate the Defense Technical Information Center (DTIC)s mission to aggregate and fuse science and technology data to rapidly, accurately and reliably deliver the knowledge needed to develop the next generation of technologies to support our Warfighters and help assure national security. Most importantly, CustodyChain facilitates DTIC goals of preserving knowledge, connecting people, and inspiring innovation. CustodyChain will underpin a new generation approach to create an authoritative and immutable distributed ledger to catalog the creation, modification, and distribution of technical data, promulgated to the defense community by DTIC, and later transitioned to adoption throughout Government, academic, and corporate research, development, test, and evaluation (RDT&E) staff.
