An active-duty U.S. Space Force aerospace engineer is proposing to the Pentagon a cybersecurity tool that could change the country's national security and the infrastructure of the internet Bitcoin.
In an academic paper, Major Jason Lowery, who is also a defense researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), presented a new theory to the U.S. Department of Defense that Bitcoin is not just a peer-to-peer payment system, but a A review of the book on Politico, New Forms of "War in the Digital Age" argues that proof-of-work technology will change the way humans compete globally.
Lowery's master's thesis, "Softwar," was published in February and, as of this writing, is the third best-selling technical book on Amazon. Lowery has a decade of experience as a weapons systems developer and technical advisor to senior U.S. officials, including on bitcoin-related policy, according to his Amazon resume. Lowery's research argues that the U.S. military could use bitcoin to thwart certain types of attacks, such as denial-of-service attacks, which overload servers with too many requests. The concept involves creating software programs that only respond to signals of large transactions recorded on the bitcoin network. This will make it harder for attackers to flood servers with false signals and cause damage.
Lowery also said that the bitcoin network is like maritime trade routes, which means it is suitable for economic exchange. Therefore, it is critical to protect freedom of navigation on the Internet, just as we protect trade routes. Lowery believes that by designing software programs that respond to external signals only when a sufficiently large bitcoin transaction has been recorded on the network, they will prevent adversaries from gaining control over them.
The authors argue that the U.S. should also stockpile bitcoin, establish a domestic bitcoin mining industry, and expand legal protections for the technology. In his view, Bitcoin is a weapon of self-defense, and the state should protect it like any other right.
