Blockchain technologies and distributed ledger systems as enablers for real time decision support

Abstract

Blockchain technologies and smart contracts were considered for their potential to provide tremendous benefits as decision support tools to the next generation of warfighters. An investigative team focused on novel security-enhanced information gathering and decision support Artificial-Intelligence (AI) based software agents that will serve as decision support co-pilots when commanders are developing real-time multi-domain orders of battle. As a core construct for this architecture, smart contracts allow for the governance of these systems to be time-bound and/or condition-bound. This disruptive technology propels progress made with distributed multi-agent systems with the numerous security benefits of blockchain technologies. Methods for implementing intelligent computing agents that follow and execute the logic embedded in a contract model will provide a transparent record of agents, chain of trust and chain of custody on the blockchain. This paper will explore mechanisms for maintaining a hierarchy of smart contracts allowing reasoning and decision support over different aspects of the overall command structure. Finally, the potential for maintaining multiple levels of classification across communication channels for platforms tasked with collection and reconnaissance missions will explored.