A four-star U.S. Navy admiral has advised Congress the military is working a reside node on the Bitcoin community and testing it for nationwide safety functions.
Admiral Samuel Paparo, commander of U.S.-Indo-Pacific Command (INDOPACOM), made the disclosure at a House Armed Services Committee listening to on Wednesday, a day after telling the Senate Armed Services Committee that Bitcoin has “incredible potential” as a device for American “power projection.” He additionally stated it has nice potential as device for nationwide safety.
The House feedback had been the primary public affirmation by a sitting US combatant commander that the military is straight collaborating within the Bitcoin peer-to-peer community.
“We have a node on the Bitcoin network right now,” Paparo stated, responding to questions from Rep. Lance Gooden. “We’re not mining Bitcoin. We’re using it to monitor, and we’re doing a number of operational tests to secure and protect networks using the Bitcoin protocol.”
A Bitcoin node is a laptop that shops the total historical past of the blockchain and enforces the community’s guidelines, relaying validated transactions throughout the peer-to-peer community. Unlike mining, it doesn’t earn rewards and doesn’t require specialised {hardware}.
Running a node is how individuals in Bitcoin confirm the community state independently reasonably than trusting third events. There are an estimated 15,000 to twenty,000 publicly reachable full nodes on the community as of early 2026, with the actual quantity possible greater as a result of many function behind firewalls.
One node out of tens of hundreds poses no risk to Bitcoin’s independence or its resistance to any single get together controlling it.
But a US military combatant command working that node is notable as a result of Bitcoin’s design has lengthy been framed as a protection in opposition to takeover makes an attempt by highly effective governments, and INDOPACOM is the command accountable for US military operations throughout the Indo-Pacific, together with the theater of strategic competitors with China.
