Months of pitching the feds on its blockchain data storage solution appear to have paid off for Ottawa-based Leonovus as this week the firm announced a tentative agreement to pilot its tech with a yet-to-be-determined government department.
Leonovus (TSX-V:LTV) says it’s pre-qualified to receive a $500,000 work order from the federal government under the Build in Canada Innovation Program. Depending on the number of departments selected to implement the firm’s technology, the final contract could be worth up to $2 million.
Leonovus CEO Michael Gaffney said in a statement that the company has presented in front of multiple departments over the past year, and each one could make use of its technology. He added that winning the feds’ approval would help the firm stand out in the market.
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“The Government of Canada is about to become a large Leonovus reference customer, which is hugely important for our marketing communications to other large enterprises,” he said.
Leonovus has raised more than $15 million since last summer to market and refine its “blockchain-hardened” solution. In short, the firm’s technology encrypts the metadata of the data it stores by backing it up on a blockchain. Gaffney pitches the new product as assurance for customers that if and when their data is breached, hackers won’t be able to make sense of it.
Leonovus isn’t the only local company getting the federal government hooked on blockchain. Bitaccess also announced a pilot project last week with the National Research Council of Canada to publish information about grants and other financial contributions to a public blockchain ledger.