SOUTH BEND, Indiana (October 15, 2020) — Blockchain innovator SIMBA Chain and Australia’s Flinders University have signed a three-year memorandum of understanding (MOU) to apply blockchain, a distributed ledger technology, to address through joint research projects and subsequent commercial opportunities, the growing global threat using digital technologies.

Since its founding in 2017, SIMBA Chain has rapidly established a reputation as a blockchain technology resource for the United States Department of Defense (DoD), securing multiple contracts to develop secure communications and supply chain solutions with blockchain as the foundational technology. SIMBA Chain’s smart-contract-as-a-service (SCaaS) platform empowers users to easily develop and deploy sophisticated distributed applications (dApps) that secure, immutable and verifiable—qualities that are mission critical to governments and industry across the free world.

Flinders University is home to the Jeff Bleich Centre for the U.S. Alliance in Digital Technology, Security and Governance (JBC), which was established to address the misuses of digital technologies that threaten demographic societies and alliances. The JBC is a non-partisan, non-profit entity that supports international collaboration, beginning with Australia and the United States, on digital research to address specific cybersecurity challenges.

“Cybersecurity threats to governments and businesses around the world have never been greater and are becoming more sophisticated,” said David Wasson SIMBA Chain’s lead executive for research and academic initiatives. “We are excited about the new defense/academic collaborative agreement with Flinders University because it combines SIMBA Chain’s powerful blockchain security technology with Flinders’ world-class social scientists and digital anthropologists, which will produce actionable security solutions for Australia, the United States, and other global allies.“

Commenting on the agreement, Flinders University’s Zac Rogers Ph.D., the research leader for the Jeff Bleich Centre, said their research team has been tracking blockchain development closely since 2017, with a focus on digital security and military affairs. “Blockchain offers a number of opportunities, from locking down data for security purposes to offering provenance over the digital processes our societies increasingly rely on to function. SIMBA Chain has gone from strength to strength in this area and was of particular interest to our Centre due to their work with the U.S. defense sector. It was a natural progression for us to reach out and partner in the research space with the SIMBA Chain team,” he said.

As part of the MOU, the SIMBA Chain team will include Chief Technology Officer Ian Taylor, who in 2019 was recognized among the world’s Top 40 Blockchain Influencers by ICO Alert. Taylor is no stranger to academia; he is a full research professor in computer science and engineering at the University of Notre Dame and a professor at Cardiff University in Wales, U.K.

Rogers is honored to have Taylor as a collaborator. “Having met and spoken with Ian a number of times, he does an incredible job of making blockchain technology accessible and understandable. He has the capacity to translate technology application across contexts and use cases, including the cybersecurity realm. It’s a huge asset to work with Ian as we explore how best to integrate technologies to strengthen and reinforce our democracies.”

SIMBA Chain and Flinders University plan to share resources and technology to facilitate research strategies. A number of projects are in the planning stage.

About SIMBA Chain, Inc.
SIMBA Chain’s cloud-based, Smart Contract as a Service (SCaaS) platform enables industry and governments to quickly develop and deploy Web 3.0 distributed applications (dApps) for many blockchains and across many platforms. SIMBA Chain was the recipient of TechPoint’s 2019 Mira Award for New Product of the Year and 1st Source Bank’s 2019 Commercialization Award. The SIMBA Chain platform supports Ethereum, Quorum, RSK, Stellar, and Hyperledger as well as other blockchain protocols. Learn more.

About Flinders University and the Jeff Bleich Centre

Flinders University, established in 1966, has over 25,000 students and over 2,500 academic and professional staff. Flinders has a strong international reputation as a high-quality teaching and research institution. In June 2019, Flinders established the Jeff Bleich Centre for the US Alliance in Digital Technology, Security and Governance (JBC), which seeks to make a unique research contribution to combating the domestic and international use of digital technologies to undermine trust and security in democratic societies. Learn more.