ExploreTrendingAnalytics
Nostr Archives
ExploreTrendingAnalytics
Daniel Batten7d ago
The end of Bitcoin mining gaslighting in mainstream media Litmaps, a powerful research tracking tool, reveals that patient zero for all junk science on Bitcoin's environmental impact was a single 6 page "commentary" by Alex de Vries. (A commentary in the context of an academic journal means a short opinion piece that does not to go through a full peer-review process and which does not use novel empirical data). The method he used to claim that Bitcoin's environmental damage was a growing concern was his fundamentally flawed "energy use per transactions" method (Bitcoin energy use does not come from its transactions, therefore it can scale transaction volume exponentially without increasing emissions). de Vries' metric was later debunked in no fewer than 4 separate academic journals as part of full length academic papers. *Masanet et al 2019 https://researchgate.net/publication/335456595_Implausibl… *Dittmar et al. 2019 https://nature.com/articles/s41558-019-0534-5 *Sedlmeir et al, 2020 https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12599-020-00656-x *Sai and Vraken 2023 https://sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2096720923… The entire body of de Vries' work was systematically debunked by Sai and Vranken in late 2023 source: https://sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2096720923… Immediately after Sai & Vranken's study, all mainstream media outlets stopped covering de Vries' Bitcoin "research" In fact, 22 mainstream media outlets have now flipped to covering Bitcoin's environmental benefits (source: https://x.com/DSBatten/status/2007095059963949217) which have been well established in 24 peer reviewed full length academic studies. (source: https://lnkd.in/gdH4wvw7) A further 15 sustainability media outlets are now also covering Bitcoin mining's environmental benefits: source: https://lnkd.in/gdH4wvw7 But just as years after the myth "all fats cause cholesterol" was debunked, many people are still unaware of the science, the same is true of Bitcoin mining In both cases, the population was misinformed over many years. As a result, many people are still unaware that the contemporary academic literature, case studies and grid operators themselves all overwhelmingly support Bitcoin mining's environmental benefits source: https://x.com/DSBatten/status/2013987189256810703 It is only a matter of time before policymakers, regulators, political leaders and investment committees catch up. Once they do we will see mainstream adoption of Bitcoin, and mainstream adoption of Bitcoin mining as part of climate action (aka: what the peer reviewed research tells us it is) source: https://x.com/compose/articles/edit/2009351000952279040 While many media outlets are now objectively commenting on Bitcoin, others (Financial Times, The Economist, Verge, Wired, New Scientist) have simply pivoted to changing the type of Bitcoin misinformation they publish.
💬 12 replies

Replies (12)

BankSith6d ago
🐇🧡
0000 sats
Bayer6d ago
Love your work on all this! Always informative and well researched. Its sad that one 6 page opinion piece caused so much damage and yet that was probably the aim since it always takes significanty more data to counter it. The damage got done.
0000 sats
TheBitcoinBattery6d ago
Great work Daniel! People are starting to have less FUD about bitcoin's environmental affects thanks in no small part to your efforts.
0000 sats
BB Man6d ago
A lot of people reading this thread might walk away thinking the science is settled in favor of Bitcoin mining being environmentally beneficial. That’s not really what the academic literature shows. It’s true that the “energy per transaction” metric is widely criticized because Bitcoin’s energy use is driven by mining competition and hashrate, not by the number of transactions. But pointing that out doesn’t invalidate the broader body of research on Bitcoin’s electricity consumption. The papers cited here didn’t “debunk” environmental concerns. Most of them simply argue that some projections were exaggerated or based on questionable assumptions. That’s normal scientific debate. They don’t conclude that Bitcoin mining is environmentally positive. At the same time, there is emerging research exploring potential upsides such as using curtailed renewable energy, acting as flexible demand for power grids, or reducing methane flaring. Those ideas are being studied, but they’re still case-specific and far from a global consensus. So the reality is more nuanced. The literature doesn’t support the extreme claim that Bitcoin is an environmental disaster, but it also doesn’t support the claim that it’s broadly a climate solution. The impact depends heavily on the energy sources miners use and how mining integrates with local power systems.
0000 sats
Daniel Batten6d ago
Have you read the 24 papers that conclude positive environmental benefits to Bitcoin mining? I have, and here is my conclusion: The literature absolutely does support the claims that bitcoin mining 1. accelerates the green energy transition 2. can profitably mitigate methane 3. can make other technologies (such as green hydrogen) more profitable 4. allows renewable operators 5. can obviate more emission intensive gas peaker plants This is also the consensus of all grid operators who have experimented with Bitcoin mining, and 8 independent reports. If after looking through these papers you come to a different conclusion, happy to have an informed discussion with you about why you came to that different conclusion. If that is a little too much reading (fair enough), I've done a summary of these papers here https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/why-green-energy-transitio… and here https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/changing-narrative-bitcoin… that takes about 15 mins to read.
00
Menno Reitse Bouma6d ago
Did he ever apologize or at least acknowledge he messed up? That was some embarrassingly unnuanced 'research' if you ask me. Anyway, thanks for continuously trying to counter that stuff with nuance, I really appreciate it 🫶
0000 sats
Daniel Batten6d ago
He has not. Similar to journalists, they just moved on to other things.
0000 sats
Flix6d ago
Daniel Batten is a hero. "Against stupidity the gods themselves battle in vain"
0000 sats
Barkskin6d ago
Do you know if this United Nation article is also linked with De Vries's research? https://unu.edu/press-release/un-study-reveals-hidden-env…
0000 sats
Daniel Batten5d ago
This article used pre-China mining ban data and a deeply flawed methodology. It was debunked by Margot Paez two years ago.
0000 sats
Leo⚡️5d ago
Hi Daniel, would you be down to record a podcast about this? Best!
0000 sats
0
0 sats
Barkskin4d ago
Thank you
0000 sats