Distributed Ledger

The Distributed Ledger solicitation, issued by the National Science Foundation under solicitation number DL, invites innovative proposals focused on emerging and commercially significant distributed ledger technologies including blockchains, directed acyclic graphs, and related foundational capabilities such as cryptography and smart contracts. Projects must demonstrate novel, distinctive approaches with the potential for disruptive innovation and strong competitive advantage across any industry or commercial application. The solicitation is open to all technical areas within the distributed ledger space, encouraging broad participation from entrepreneurs and researchers pursuing high-impact advancements beyond predefined examples. This opportunity is structured as a Total Small Business Set-Aside under the SBIR/STTR mandate, meaning only small businesses with fewer than 500 employees are eligible to apply. The NAICS code 541715 applies, classifying the effort within research and development in the physical, engineering, and life sciences. The proposal deadline is July 7, 2027, and submissions must be made through the official federal portal linked in the posting. While specific performance locations and point of contact details are not provided, the solicitation is administered federally by the National Science Foundation with no geographic restrictions on where the work may be conducted.