US Military Is Running a Live Bitcoin Node for Cybersecurity Research, Indo-Pacific Commander Tells Congress

Admiral Samuel Paparo told Congress that INDOPACOM is running a live Bitcoin node and conducting operational security tests using the protocol, describing Bitcoin as a computer science tool rather than a financial asset.

Admiral Samuel Paparo, commander of US Indo-Pacific Command (INDOPACOM), disclosed to the House Armed Services Committee on Wednesday that the US military is operating a live node on the Bitcoin network and conducting operational tests using the protocol to explore its potential applications for securing military infrastructure.

The disclosure marks the first public confirmation by a sitting US combatant commander that the military is directly participating in the Bitcoin peer-to-peer network.

This story is an excerpt from the Unchained Daily newsletter.

“We have a node on the Bitcoin network right now,” Paparo told lawmakers. “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.”

Paparo framed the initiative entirely in terms of computer science and network security, not monetary policy or financial asset accumulation.

“Our interest in Bitcoin is as a tool of cryptography, a blockchain, and a reusable proof-of-work — as an additional tool to secure networks, and to project power,” he said. “From the military application standpoint, my interest in Bitcoin is as a computer science tool.”

Paparo’s remarks came during questioning by Sen. Tommy Tuberville of Alabama, who asked whether US leadership in Bitcoin could strengthen the country’s strategic position against China in the Indo-Pacific theater.

A Bitcoin node stores a full copy of the blockchain, enforces the network’s protocol rules, and relays validated data across the peer-to-peer network. Unlike mining, it requires no specialized hardware and earns no rewards. As of early 2026, there are an estimated 15,000 to 20,000 publicly reachable full nodes on the Bitcoin network, with the actual number likely higher as many operate behind firewalls.

Paparo said the government is currently in an “experimentation” phase with the technology and some details of INDOPACOM’s Bitcoin-related research may remain classified. He did not address Trump’s Strategic Bitcoin Reserve executive order directly, and his comments placed the military’s interest on the technical side of the ledger, not the financial one. He also praised the GENIUS Act, the stablecoin legislation signed last summer, as “a great step forward” toward supporting the global hegemony of the US dollar.