Should the Federal Government Mine Bitcoin? (Part #1)

By Olde Salt

Jul 10, 2025

“(W)e will make America the undisputed Bitcoin superpower … of the world.”

President Donald Trump
March, 2025

Nahh, probably not.

Although I do agree with what the President actually said in that statement. America—not the government but the nation—should be the Bitcoin Superpower of the world.

In my humble opinion, the federal government has no business actually mining bitcoin or even contracting with mining companies to mine bitcoin on behalf of the government. The political obstacles are just too great to implement such a program. Think Congress, lobbyists, bean counters, donors, political parties, the Swamp, the combatant media, a befuddled academia, to say nothing of Elizabeth Warren and her pack of bumbling cronies!

The federal government should instead,

Partner-up with Bitcoin mining companies

Do this by providing free electrical power and free physical facilities to mining companies. Then stand back and let the miners do their thing and share the bitcoin produced by their operations. A massive win-win. So where do those “free” resources (power + facilities) come from? Consider these three steps.

1. Declare bitcoin mining to be a national security imperative. Perhaps Space Force Major Jason Lowery could give them some help here. (I do not know Jason but have been immensely impressed by his work.)

2. Order the military services—Army, Navy, et.al.—to provide electrical power and facilities to the mining companies.

3. Finally, split the bitcoin produced by the miners.

The President, in his constitutional role as Commander in Chief, has broad power to make many things happen in a largely frictionless way. In my belief, he doesn’t need the permission of Congress or anybody else to expend unused electrical power or occupy vacant military facilities. He can just give the order and step back.

This article will examine one possible approach to this hypothetical solution which I freely admit may be either prescient or ludicrous. Either way this subject should be thoroughly examined by the experts. In that regard, it seems relatively straightforward to test these ideas for their technical and financial possibilities.

Note: I have never served in a nuclear warship although my twenty-four years of military service did, at times, extend into that arena.

Moving on, the U.S. Navy has eleven nuclear-powered aircraft carriers organized into three operational groups.

A. Those in workups preparing to deploy.
B. Those currently deployed
C. Those in shipyards undergoing repairs and upgrades following deployment.

These ships rotate from group to group with about one third of the eleven carriers in each group. As a ship completes workups, it deploys. When the deployment concludes, the ship goes into the yards. And when a ship finishes its yard period it goes back into workups.

Considering Group A (workups) only, these ships do not have air wings embarked (typically one hundred or so aircraft and 2,500-3,000 personnel). In this status, substantial excess physical resources are available such as offices, workshops, labs, berthing, chow, water, and most importantly, electrical power.

Each carrier has a nuclear power plant capable of generating somewhat more than one gigawatt of electrical power. Without an air-wing embarked, let’s just say hypothetically one third of this capacity goes unused for a typical, year-long workup period.

Meaning an estimated one third of a gigawatt of electrical power is available for other uses at minimal cost. With three aircraft carriers in workup status, a hypothetical one gigawatt of essentially free electrical power is available at all times.

The three workup aircraft carriers combined could hypothetically provide electrical power for more than 300,000 bitcoin mining rigs—one hundred thousand rigs per ship. And the mining company employees to manage, operate, and maintain this equipment could be absorbed into the ship’s company with ease.

I don’t see any significant operational or political barriers in the way of this project and it could be put into motion very quickly.

But there’s more.

The US Navy also operates sixty-seven nuclear submarines. Opportunities for utilizing these nuclear power plants for bitcoin mining at sea are quite limited, however, due to space limitations and operational tempo. Some mining operations might be supported, however when submarines are in port through the installation of mining rigs in nearby barges or warehouses.

Just for comparison a single Ohio class submarine in port, with its 220 megawatt power plant, might be able to support 40-50,000, land based bitcoin mining rigs.

But there is even more.

Eleven of those nuclear submarines are scheduled for deactivation. Additionally, the USS Nimitz (CVN-68) is scheduled for deactivation following its current deployment. The total electrical generation capacity of these nuclear-powered ships adds up to about three gigawatts.

That amount of power would support another cool million bitcoin mining rigs.

Seems pretty super-powerish to me.

Note: Part # 2 of this series of articles will examine another potential approach to free military resources for bitcoin mining.

In my final tour of sea duty, I was honored to serve a tour of duty aboard an aircraft carrier. Our commanding officer often described our ship in this fashion,

“We have been entrusted with this great national treasure.”

That statement has influenced my thinking for forty-five years.

What a damned shame it would be to squander these great national treasures.

And stay tuned for Part # 2 of this conjecture.

Damn the FUD; full speed ahead!

Olde Salt