BoTAS: Blockchain and Nuclear Proliferation

Over the past several years, BoTAS has steadily expanded its coverage of big dangers from nukes to pandemics (and bioweapons) to now computers (AI and hacking).  Now they are beginning to connect the dots in a new article called Blockchain: a New Aid to Nuclear Export Controls?

 [image link]

Today’s supply-side efforts to control the spread of nuclear weapons technology consist of a rainbow of decentralized, sometimes overlapping and sometimes fragmented systems of international agreements, informal arrangements, and national legislation. These efforts range from export licensing and targeted sanctions to corporate compliance and due diligence programs. Not surprisingly, differences in national implementation and enforcement continue to frustrate efforts to keep dual-use goods and technologies out of proliferator hands. These implementation gaps, coupled with the sheer volume of global trade and commerce, have reduced the barriers to entry for intermediaries and created pathways for illicit procurement networks to exploit.

This is exactly the sort of problem that blockchains are designed to solve, how to track transactions in an open and transparent way.  BoTAS author Aaron Arnold attempts to present both sides of the issue, noting that anonymity is a sword that cuts both ways, and that North Korea has been pursuing cryptocurrencies, more specifically hacking South Korean BitCoin exchanges, as a way of avoiding sanctions.

I'm no expert, and would be interested to hear reactions to the article.