In February 2023, Major Jason Lowery — an active US Space Force officer on a National Defense Fellowship at MIT — published a thesis called *Softwar*.
His argument: Bitcoin's Proof-of-Work is not a monetary mechanism. It is a form of power projection. Whoever commands the most mining infrastructure commands the most defensible territory in the digital domain. He recommended the DoD treat Bitcoin mining as a national security priority — no differently than naval power or satellite positioning.
Late 2024: the Department of Defense placed the book under retroactive security review. Commercial distribution was halted. Lowery was instructed to stop discussing Bitcoin publicly.
No official statement. No denial. No explanation of any kind.
The thesis is still accessible in MIT's repository. Physical copies reached $300 on the secondary market.
Governments don't quietly suppress things they consider irrelevant. They ignore them.
The question worth asking: if Bitcoin is just a speculative asset, why does a military thesis about it require a security review?
A US Space Force officer argued Bitcoin mining is military power projection. The Pentagon quietly suppressed the book.
byu/The_VisibleInvisible inBitcoin
Posted by The_VisibleInvisible
2 Comments
I have the book and have read the book. It’s accurate.
I have the book. Very interesting.
Makes a very good point that proof of work is the only valid way to defend against hacking.
In the ERA where AI can find zero day exploits and everything (banking, drones, power grid) still have weak username / password protecting infrastructure and the army behind proof of work makes sense.