Melissa Oh & Anil John of the Department of Homeland Security's Silicon Valley Innovation Program (SVIP) reveal the secret sauce of this one-of-a-kind federal innovation approach to push emerging blockchain products towards interoperability, and create solutions built-to-suit for DHS without suffering vendor lock-in. They discuss building a diverse partnership portfolio with startups run by women and other underrepresented groups, and call on other federal agencies to share their work and lessons learned in blockchain projects. Melissa Oh is Managing Director of the Silicon Valley Office of the DHS Science & Technology Directorate. Anil John is the Technical Director of the SVIP.