Authored by Micah Zimmerman via Bitcoin Magazine,
The United States military has an active node on the Bitcoin network, according to Admiral Samuel Paparo, commander of U.S. Indo-Pacific Command (INDOPACOM). The disclosure, made at a House Servicescommitteehearing, marks the first known confirmation that a U.S. military combatant command is directly participating in the Bitcoin peer-to-peer network.
“We have a node on the Bitcoin network,”Paparo wrote.“We’re doing a number of operational tests to secure and protect networks using the Bitcoin protocol.”
The statement landed one day after Paparo made waves in Congress with testimony that framed Bitcoin as a tool of American power.
JUST IN: 🇺🇸 Four-star military officer Admiral Samuel Paparo confirms the USA is running a Bitcoin node."We have a node on the Bitcoin network right now. We're doing a number of operational tests to secure and protect networks using the Bitcoin protocol."pic.twitter.com/4JIOIMtlTW
On April 21, Paparotestifiedbefore the Senate Armed Services Committee during a FY2027 defense authorization hearing. Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) asked Paparo whether U.S. leadership in Bitcoin could give the country an edge against China in the Indo-Pacific theater.
Paparo did not deflect. He told the committee that INDOPACOM’s research centers on Bitcoin as a computer science tool — not as a financial asset.
“Our research into Bitcoin is as a computer science tool,”Paparo said.
“It’s the combination of cryptography, a blockchain, and a proof of work. AndBitcoin shows incredible potential as a computer science tool that through the proof-of-work protocols, actually imposes more cost than just the algorithmic securing of networks and our ability to operate.”
He described Bitcoin as “a peer-to-peer, zero-trust transfer of value” and said that “anything that supports all instruments of national power for the United States of America is to the good.”
Source: ZeroHedge News
