đ¨Bitcoin, the Pentagon's cybersecurity weapon? US Space Force major launches debate
â Major Jason Lowery of the US Space Force has just sent a passionate open letter to the Defense Innovation Board, an advisory body to the US Department of Defense, about Bitcoin. Its objective: to convince the Pentagon to consider this cryptocurrency as a national strategic issue.
đ¨US Space Force major urges Pentagon to look into Bitcoin
â On December 3, Major Jason Lowery of the US Space Force sent an open letter to the Defense Innovation Board, an advisory body to the US Department of Defense (DOD).
â In his mail, Lowery explains that Bitcoin, much more than a digital currency, represents a major advance in the field of cybersecurity. Indeed, its blockchain is based on âproof-of-workâ, a protocol where miners must solve complex calculations to validate transactions.
â This requires enormous quantities of electricity and thus amounts to integrating a physical constraint into the digital world. According to Major Lowery, Bitcoin is effectively the world's first "macroprocessor", using the planet's power grid to impose a real cost on cyberattacks.
đ¨A revolution for American defense
â Major Lowery, a graduate of the Air Command and Staff College, believes that this innovation fits perfectly with the logic of American defense strategies. Since the Cold War, the Pentagon has relied on technology to counter a numerically superior adversary, a concept called âoffset strategy.â
â Bitcoin could be the âoffset strategyâ of the 21st century by providing the United States with a decisive advantage in cybersecurity. Major Lowery therefore calls on the Department of Defense to urgently study its military applications. Integrated into American digital infrastructure, this revolutionary technology would, according to him, transform the global balance of power.