The United States plans to train officers on digital currency such as bitcoin as well as the dark web and has put up a curriculum in this regard.

This was revealed by John Kerry, Secretary of State, Palo Alto, California, at the Virtuous Circle Conference on 10th October. He said that that currently there are 139 “digital officers” in embassies around the world, adding that they have been given curriculum and are trained through Foreign Service Institute.

When asked whether Foreign Service Officers should be able to speak with fluency about Bitcoin and dark web the same way they do talk about international law today, Kerry responded, “Absolutely, yes.” Furthermore, when questioned whether the State Department is doing this training, Kerry said:

“Yes. That’s the curriculum we’ve put together. I mean, I haven’t asked -- there’s a lot of uncertainty with Bitcoin or whatever…”

“I can’t tell you that every Foreign Service officer is being trained to the degree they ought to be but they’re all being made aware of this fundamental premise…”

US government has been taking interest in blockchain and distributed ledger technology for quite some time now. The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has been providing grants to blockchain projects. Also, the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) in July invited paper submissions on the topic of blockchain technology and its potential uses in the healthcare industry.