According to Politico, Jason Lowery, a Space Force major who is also a graduate student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, has written a 400-page academic document called “Softwar: A Novel Theory on Power Projection and the National Strategic Significance of Bitcoin”.
The book has become popular and features a buck skull on the cover. In it, Lowery argues that the future of global military moves lies in crypto mining using the Proof of Work protocol, which is the consensus mechanism used by Bitcoin to verify coin ownership.
He suggests that governments should engage in PoW competitions to avoid traditional warfare and other types of competition.
Politico reports that Lowery uses the antlers on the cover of his book as a metaphor for the global competition that could occur if governments engage in crypto mining. He likens it to the macho battles between stags that leave both parties without significant physical harm.
The winner of these mining battles would receive a predetermined quantity of tokens and the right to publish the next block of transactions.
While Lowery’s imaginative conception of a world without traditional war is commendable, there is a significant flaw in his theory. Crypto mining is known to have a severe environmental impact, and experts predict that this could lead to worsening wars and violent conflicts.
If we continue to damage the Earth as we are now, conflicts over resources are inevitable, regardless of whether militaries engage in crypto mining or not.
