For security agencies, blockchain is now a potential solution

Bitcoin has since become the preferred currency not only of libertarians and speculators, but also of criminal hackers

Police and security agencies have so far only taken an interest in blockchain — the distributed ledger technology behind cryptocurrencies like bitcoin - for tracking criminals hiding illegal money from banks.

But that’s changing as some civilian, police and military agencies see blockchain as a potential solution to problems they have wrestled with for years: How to secure data, but also be able to share it in a way that lets the owner keep control.

Australia, for example, has recently hired HoustonKemp, a Singapore-based consultancy, to build a blockchain-based system to record intelligence created by investigators and others, and improve the way