Softwar: A Novel Theory on Power Projection and the National Strategic Significance of Bitcoin

This is a physical print of a publicly available academic thesis written by Jason Lowery, an active-duty US Space Force astronautical engineer and US National Defense Fellow at MIT. Digital copies are available at MIT and Air University.

In this thesis, Lowery presents a novel theory to the US Department of Defense that Bitcoin doesn't just represent a peer-to-peer cash system, it also (and more importantly) represents a new form of digital-age warfare that will transform national security, cyber security, and possibly even the base-layer architecture of the internet. Using scientific concepts from biology, evolution, anthropology, political science, and computer theory, Lowery summarizes the dynamics of power projection in human society and provides an argument for why emerging proof-of-work technologies (namely Bitcoin) will have a dramatic impact on how humans organize, cooperate, and compete on a global scale by empowering populations to project physical power in, from, and through cyberspace. Lowery concludes that Bitcoin represents a national strategic imperative that the US should support and adopt as quickly as possible, else it risks losing its lead as a global superpower in the 21st century.