An intriguing narrative on Bitcoin emerged this year around the physical security offered by its proof-of-work consensus method. This narrative evolved from Jason Lowery[1], a commissioned officer in the U.S. Space Force and a U.S. National Defense Fellow enrolled in MIT, whose full-time job is to research Bitcoin for the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD). His opinions on the topic are his own and do not represent those of the DoD.
As part of his master’s degrees, Lowery plans to write his thesis on how proof-of-work miners are functionally identical[2] to the role of militaries and could be adopted as a surrogate to war with respect to achieving global consensus on the current state and chain of liberty and digital property. What’s particularly unique about Lowery’s thesis is that it fits proof of work as an evolution from the biological and physical patterns of the universe and life itself.
Lowery explains that[3], billions of years ago, our world was nothing more than a few unicellular organisms. Over time, the state and chain of custody over resources swayed in the favor of multicellular organisms that involuntarily cooperated. Animals evolved and expressed power projection to settle disputes over resources — everything from antlers to dominant behaviors. Fast forward to millions of years ago and we have the rise of hominids. One of those species of hominids, Homo sapiens, developed the cognition for abstract thought and the ability to scale trust and cooperation beyond Dunbar’s number[4], using a common set of beliefs.
“The game of life is a game of power projection. It’s usually kinetic power projection. One great way to be better at power projection is to cooperate. Cooperation itself is a predatory competitive advantage… History is
