Bitcoin community questions the US military's understanding of Bitcoin: General criticized for "reading Wikipedia"

BlockBeats news, April 26, after a senior US military official told the Senate Armed Services Committee on Tuesday that the US government operates a Bitcoin node, several members of the Bitcoin community questioned the US government's understanding of the Bitcoin network. US Admiral Samuel Paparo told the Senate Armed Services Committee: "Our research on Bitcoin is to view it as a computer science tool. It is a combination of cryptography, blockchain, and proof of work."

Bitcoin educator and advocate Matthew Kratter said the admiral sounded like he was reading Bitcoin's "Wikipedia page," and questioned the level of understanding Paparo and US Senator Tommy Tuberville had of the protocol. Kratter added: "This is actually rather embarrassing. These two people are talking about something they do not understand. When he says it's a way to 'project power' or it's a 'computer science tool,' he never actually explains what he means by that." Kratter went on to say: "What comes to mind is that they actually said nothing at all." The Rage journalist Lola Leetz said Paparo's Senate testimony was "rambling."

Sam Lyman, Director of Research at digital asset advocacy group Bitcoin Policy Institute, told Cointelegraph that the Iranian government is collecting oil transit fees with both USD-pegged stablecoins and Bitcoin, but prefers to use USD-pegged stablecoins. Lyman pointed out that stablecoins can still be frozen by the issuer at the smart contract level, whereas Bitcoin cannot be frozen because it has no central issuer. He stated: "This is one of the clearest cases of Bitcoin acting as a strategic asset." He added: "The reason Iran wants to use Bitcoin in these transactions is that no one can freeze Bitcoin, and no one can shut down the Bitcoin network."