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Admiral Samuel Paparo Says the United States Is Running a Bitcoin Node

According to Admiral Samuel Paparo, U.S. Indo-Pacific Command operates a Bitcoin node for monitoring, operational testing, military cybersecurity, and network defense rather than for mining or treasury purposes.

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Fact Check
The claim is likely true because multiple run-validated sources agree on the same core facts: the PANews article and the Bitcoin Magazine X post both state that Samuel Paparo told the Senate Bitcoin has significant potential as a computer science tool and described it as valuable for power projection. The Crypto Briefing X post independently matches that characterization. However, confidence is only medium because the most authoritative primary source would be the Senate hearing transcript or official video, and that government record was not directly obtained in this run. Therefore the evidence supports the claim, but not at the highest confidence.
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Summary

Admiral Samuel Paparo said at an April 23 House Armed Services Committee hearing that U.S. Indo-Pacific Command is running a Bitcoin node for monitoring, operational tests, military cybersecurity, and network defense testing. His remarks confirm that a U.S. government entity is directly operating software that independently verifies Bitcoin blockchain data and participates in the network. Paparo described Bitcoin as a computer science tool relevant to cryptography, blockchain, and reusable proof-of-work, while emphasizing that the activity is technical and security-related rather than mining BTC or holding it as a financial asset. While the newer source broadly says the U.S. government runs a Bitcoin node, the older topic provides the more specific and detailed identification of the command and its purpose.

Terms & Concepts
  • Bitcoin node: A computer running Bitcoin software that connects to the network and independently verifies, stores, and relays blockchain data according to Bitcoin’s rules.
  • blockchain: A distributed digital ledger that records transactions in linked blocks and is maintained by a network of participants.
  • proof-of-work: A consensus mechanism in which computing power is used to validate transactions and secure a blockchain network.