The SEC wants to buy a blockchain forensics tool for monitoring smart contracts

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has put out a call for a blockchain forensics tool to help it monitor smart contracts. On July 30, the agency released a solicitation that gives software firms until August 13 to submit their proposals.

The tool will monitor smart contract code, effectively serving as a way to keep a closer eye on the Decentralized Finance ecosystem.

The SEC said it's looking for a tool that can "analyze smart contract logic," like contract purpose, token sale specifications, purchase and sale restriction, whitelisted or blacklisted addresses and permission management. It's also looking to identify contract modifications performed with administrator keys.

Though the solicitation lists the qualification as "preferred not required," the SEC hopes security and vulnerability analysis will be among the tool's capabilities.

The SEC move to onboard a blockchain forensic tool comes weeks after the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) inked a deal with Coinbase to leverage its blockchain tracing software. At the time, the IRS said in published documents that Coinbase Analytics provided "enhanced law enforcement sensitive capabilities."

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