By Yevheniia Broshevan, Co-founder and CEO, Hacken
As Hacken’s newly appointed CEO, I am stepping into this role at a critical moment. National security is no longer defined solely by land, sea, and air, it is also contested in code and cryptography. The United States, in particular, faces both immense opportunity and significant threat as blockchain becomes embedded in finance, energy, and critical infrastructure. This is why Hacken is deepening its presence in the US: to help secure the digital frontier and ensure blockchain strengthens rather than undermines national resilience.
In the US, the Department of Defense has been testing permissioned blockchains to keep supply chains secure and to authenticate key components. FEMA has looked at distributed ledgers to track food and medical aid in disaster zones. Law enforcement agencies are using blockchain analytics to trace illicit funds, follow the patterns, and freeze accounts before money can be moved. This is happening now, not in some distant future.
Our adversaries have moved quickly. China has poured more than $54 billion into its national blockchain roadmap, embedding it into the digital yuan, surveillance and payments. Russia is trialling tokenised energy and commodity trades to get around sanctions. Iran is building a wholesale CBDC with Russia to bypass SWIFT. And North Korea has stolen over $11.5 billion in crypto since 2020, funding its weapons programme. These are not experiments. They are deliberate strategies.
Managing sensitive data is at the centre of the debate. Public chains are transparent and auditable, but no defence data should sit in the open. Permissioned blockchains help, but they carry the risk of centralisation. The better approach is a hybrid one, public chains for integrity proofs, permissioned layers for the critical data, and advanced cryptography on top. Zero-knowledge proofs and homomorphic encryption now make it possible to verify or compute without exposing the raw information. This is where the technology is moving, and Hacken is investing heavily in this direction.
Of course there are risks. Dependence on foreign hardware opens the door to supply chain attacks. Public chains can be throttled under sanctions. Decentralisation makes attribution of bad actors harder. Exploits and smart contract bugs remain constant threats. And hostile states continue to weaponise blockchain for theft and evasion.
The next step is closer integration. Public agencies and private security auditors should be working side by side. A national Blockchain and Digital Asset Solarium Commission would help align US efforts, just as the Cyberspace Solarium Commission did in 2020. Europe would benefit from a similar approach.
Every new technology carries risk, but the greater danger lies in hesitation while adversaries advance. Trust in economies and infrastructure will increasingly depend on trust in the chain itself. To protect that trust, governments and private security experts must work side by side. The United States should move quickly to establish a Blockchain and Digital Asset Solarium Commission, aligning national strategy just as it did with cyberspace. At Hacken, we are committed to partnering with US institutions to make this collaboration real. Securing the chain is no longer optional, it is a strategic imperative, and the time to act is now.
* The Digital Chamber’s latest report: “Blockchain and National Security: A Strategic Imperative”, which explores blockchain’s role in U.S. national security. Hacken is a founding member of the Digital Chamber.
