U.S. Air Force will use Notre Dame startup SIMBA Chain to secure Its supply chain

Author: Melanie Lux

Simba Chain Team

Simba Chain TeamSIMBA Chain Team

University of Notre Dame startup and Innovation Park tenant SIMBA Chain has been chosen to help the U.S. Air Force with additive manufacturing efforts on the battlefield and at home. The Air Force uses a complex supply chain to equip and repair forward-deployed forces and SIMBA Chain will play a key role in securing that chain. Long value chains are among the biggest security issue in manufacturing for Industry 4.0. This is the case for all manufacturing but is especially critical in military applications, where hostile entities would attempt to obtain or modify critical data.

To coordinate distributed manufacturing in the field, the Blockchain Approach for Supply Chain Additive Manufacturing Parts project will use the SIMBA Chain platform to create a prototype demonstrating a blockchain approach for the registration and tracking of additive manufacturing components during their entire lifecycle.

The SIMBA Chain uses Microsoft Azure for trust and reliability, key factors when providing support on the battlefield. With SIMBA, the Air Force’s Blockchain Approach for Supply Chain Additive Manufacturing Parts project will be able to decentralize additive manufacturing in the field while maintaining the integrity of data. This means that repairs to vehicles can’t be tampered with by a third party, as top-secret 3D printing plans could be transmitted to forward forces without unwanted surveillance. Blockchain is an ideal application for its decentralized nature, and SIMBA provides a simplification layer for blockchain developers to implement complex, security-focused solutions like Blockchain Approach for Supply Chain Additive Manufacturing Parts.

About SIMBA Chain, Inc.

SIMBA Chain was established in 2017 as the result of a grant awarded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency to the University of Notre Dame Center for Research Computing and ITAMCO to develop a secure, unhackable messaging and transaction platform for the U.S. military. SIMBA Chain’s cloud-based, Smart Contract-as-a-service (SCaaS) platform enables users, developers, government, and enterprises to quickly develop and deploy blockchain dapps for iOS, Android, and the web. SIMBA Chain is a Venture Club Indy InnoShowcase19 winner, sponsored by Elevate Ventures, and is the recipient of TechPoint’s 2019 Mira Award for New Product of the Year and 1st Source Bank’s Commercialization Award. The platform supports Ethereum, Quorum, Stellar, RSK and is on the verge of adding more blockchain protocols such as, Quant Overledger, Hyperledger, Ripple, R3 Cord, and Libra to their cutting-edge platform.

Originally published by Melanie Lux at ideacenter.nd.edu on August 28, 2019.