Bitcoin could be a “strategic asset” for U.S. national security.

In the interest of strengthening national security, U.S. authorities should learn more about bitcoin (BTC) technology and its ecosystem. And, instead of monitoring it, they could use it to mitigate the risks commonly coined for cryptocurrencies.

This is the view of the Bitcoin Policy Institute (BPI), a nonprofit, nonpartisan U.S. organization dedicated to studying and researching the political and social implications of the first cryptocurrency. cryptocurrency and the rest of the market.

This institution issued a document where exposes the BTC as a “strategic national security asset.”.

The article, available on the BIS website, responds to. the public consultation convened last September by the U.S. Treasury Department, with the aim of learning more about the “risks inherent in cryptocurrencies.”.

As the government agency pointed out at the time, the consultation (which ended on Nov. 3, 2022) was organized as a result of the Executive Order issued last March by President Joe Biden, Calling for reports to decide how to regulate bitcoin.

With the request for comments this Department aims to monitor the Bitcoin ecosystem by seeking feedback and information from the public on “what actions the U.S. government and the Treasury Department should take to mitigate the risks of this emerging ecosystem.”

Five principles of bitcoiners

In the BIS response, released on Thursday, Nov. 3, the institution talks about five strategic principles that it believes are should U.S. authorities should take this into account.

One of these principles concerns the need for a “clear and balanced assessment” of the implications of Bitcoin and its ecosystem. Something that would allow the United States to “take full advantage of these technologies” for its national security.and at the same time “mitigate the risks,” according to the organization.

Another principle concerns the design of policies not focused on a particular risk, without first considering all strategic interests that may be favorable.

They also propose to avoid making “premature and heavy-handed” decisions that burden national security interests “at the expense of open innovation and technological leadership.”

The BIS also states that the principle to be followed is that of government agencies, Recognize the decentralization of digital assets such as bitcoinwhich are currencies that “have no leader, no governing body.”

Finally, the researchers suggest that tax policies and other cross-border accounting regulations “make it easier for U.S. entities to receive bitcoin as an investment and as payment for exports.”

“The systems Person-to-person (peer-to-peer) like bitcoin represent the essence of autonomy, voluntary cooperation and the liberal values on which our country was built,” says the BIS, which urges policymakers to take a “strategic view” of the nature of cryptocurrencies and not lose sight of their value. work “to encourage their development” in the United States and around the world.

Bitcoin is a national security issue, but for its surveillance

The BIS proposal that bitcoin and its ecosystem as key elements of national security, is already in practice at the government level in the United States. But not to exploit its technology, but to surveil it.

As CryptoNews reported a couple of years ago, Bitcoin and the rest of the market are being monitored and investigated by institutions reporting to the U.S. Department of Defense and other government agencies.

Prominent among the institutions are the National Security Agency (NSA), the FBI, the DEA, the Army, and the Secret Service. Some of them were known for contracting with companies such as Chainalysis, Elliptic and CipherTrace, to dig deeper into the Bitcoin ecosystem.