To many readers, a thesis might not sound like a page turner, but a lengthy academic paper on Bitcoin written by a US Space Force major has proven to be a popular choice on Amazon.
“Software” claims that bitcoin has the potential to play an important role on the world geopolitical stage as a military solution for securing information — very different from the monetary uses that bitcoin’s network has today.
Authored by Jason Lowery, the report represents the culmination of his academic research, which he conducted at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology during a 6-month fellowship sponsored by the Department of Defense. The full title of the article is Software: A Novel Theory on Power Projection and the National Strategic Significance of Bitcoin.
Lowrey’s brief bio on Amazon claims that he has advised several senior US officials on Bitcoin-related policies in offices associated with the President, Secretary of Defense, and the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Although “Software” is not ranked among the top 500 books in the Amazon Store, Lowery’s exploration of Bitcoin has moved up around first place in Amazon’s digital currency category and is currently second in both books technology And mechanical engineering.
The more than 350-page tome draws on knowledge from diverse fields such as anthropology and computer science to establish and explore Lowery’s “Power Projection Theory.”
Essentially, Lowery posits that the proof-of-work system underlying Bitcoin transaction verification can be used by military powers to impose non-lethal restrictions on malicious actors, by a large amount of physical labor in the form of crunching numbers.
“The bottom line is that Bitcoin could represent a ‘software’ or electronic cyber defense protocol, not just a peer-to-peer electronic cash system,” the book states. “While most software can only constrain computers logically, Bitcoin can constrain computers physically.”
The Acknowledgments section of the book recognizes some of Bitcoin’s most loyal, including MicroStrategy’s Michael Saylor and Peter McCormack.
In his article, Lowrey also writes that insufficient Bitcoin reserves held on behalf of the US government could pose a threat to the nation’s national security if the network is used as a cybersecurity tool.
“Unless the US considers hoarding strategic bitcoin reserves, or at least encouraging bitcoin adoption,” he said, “the US could lose a strategically important power […] and put yourself back in global power dominance.”
Given that Lowrey’s thesis was published in February and the US announced it sold $215 million in bitcoins seized last month, maybe not every Fed is on the same page.
The book also includes a disclosure stating that the paper does not reflect an official position of the DoD, Air Force, or MIT.
Of the more than 200 reviews “Software” received on Amazon, a majority gave the book five stars.
But a few reviews say Lowrey’s text lacks “too much wishful thinking,” “opinion-based arguments,” and quotes from “The Matrix” that “detract from the seriousness of the subject.”
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