The U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) accounts for nearly 40 percent of all federal research and development (R&D) appropriations and through the Defense Technical Information Center, managing and providing oversight for an estimated 4.5 million documents for 4,000 users. Seeking to improve the integration, security, auditability, and controlled access of this critical data, the DOD has awarded a Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I contract of $200,000 to SIMBA Chain to architect a single, proof-of-concept blockchain-based system to achieve these objectives.