The United States is already mining bitcoin, industry insider and government advisor Whit Gibbs, CEO of Compass Mining, said.
While El Salvador openly mines bitcoin, the majority of countries keep their mining operations hidden.
Prior to asking Gibbs whether the United States should become involved, entrepreneur and investor Anthony Pompliano brought up Venezuela as another government that is actively mining digital gold.
Gibbs boldly said at that time, “The United States is already mining…” before quickly amending himself and adding the word “maybe.”
Financial tool of the future
“They might have 10-20 watts going someplace in the Midwest to test it out,” the Gibbs said. “Maybe, it’s hypothetically speaking,” he added, “but it’s a national security issue.”
If Gibbs’ intention was to disprove his earlier claim that the US government was already mining, what he said next did not help him. “It is the financial tool of the future, the foundation for a lot of things.”
Nations would have to be really insane not to have any exposure to the underlying infrastructure that sustains it, Gibbs pointed out.
As a result, Gibbs said he believes the US is on the offensive. He emphasized that they have had a lot of discussions with the federal government in Washington, D.C., as well as state governments, to assist educate them, “and they’ve been extremely supportive.”
Changing the subject, Gibbs went on to say that bitcoin mining will be a terrific way for developing countries to catch up. The executive further said that the decisions being made in El Salvador over the next 20-30 years will prove to be prudent.
Getting in trouble
Pompliano urged Gibbs to play “story poker” with him before revealing details of a US federal law enforcement agency involved in bitcoin mining.
Pompliano claims the agency learned that buying bitcoin was tough, but adding more computers to their budget allowed them to mine their own BTC for use in covert operations.
Pompliano said a former agent told him the secret mining began in 2013.
A second anecdote from Gibbs was then shared with the audience. “This is how you get yourself into trouble,” Gibbs said.
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