Yesterday, Square auto-enabled Bitcoin payments for its 4 million merchants via the Lightning Network. Zero processing fees through 2026.

Everyone’s covering the headline. Here are three things almost nobody is covering about what it means for Bitcoin adoption.

1. The irony

In the early days, Bitcoin was called the dirty payment network. 24 peer reviewed papers proved that to be factually incorrect, but it was once the dominant narrative anyway. Here’s the irony: because the payment networks nobody questions use mostly fossil fuel, Bitcoin is doing for payments what EVs did for transport: obviating coal and gas based electricity generation with a cleaner alternative. Let’s unpack how.

Visa and Mastercard run on the electrical grid. In the US and around the world, that grid is roughly 60% fossil fuel, which means every swipe, every tap, every contactless payment is powered predominantly by coal and gas.

Bitcoin’s Lightning Network draws from a very different energy mix. According to the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance, 52.4% of Bitcoin mining now runs on sustainable energy, up from 37.6% in 2022, with coal dropping from 36.6% to just 8.9% over the same period. That makes the Bitcoin network a net promoter of sustainable energy. Equally importantly, close to 30% of Bitcoin mining operates off-grid, forming direct relationships with renewable operators whose energy would otherwise be wasted.

So when a customer pays via Lightning at a Square terminal, they’re settling on the lowest-emission payment network in existence. And as of today, that’s the default for 4 million merchants.

2. The inertia

This is the part the adoption trackers are missing.

When Square first unveiled “Square Bitcoin“ in October 2025, it was opt-in. Merchants had to find it, enable it and configure it. Adoption was predictably slow. Five months later, they flipped the default. Every Square merchant now has Bitcoin payments enabled unless they actively choose to turn it off.

This is the first time any major payment processor has done this. PayPal’s crypto features are opt-in. Stripe’s Bitcoin payouts are opt-in. Coinbase’s crypto payment option is opt-in. Shopify’s Bitcoin option is opt-in. Every single one requires the merchant to go looking for it. Square just reversed the polarity.

If you know anything about default settings in technology, you know what happens next.

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One hundred years later, another “What would the world look like if…” question is quietly transforming the world of charity. An incredible 50 charities are already onboard, Bitcoin is at the core of the transformation, and yet hardly anyone knew about it (until now).

For example, did you know that charities including Amnesty International, Make-A-Wish Foundation, Orphans in Need, Human Relief Foundation, Save the Children are now accepting Bitcoin?

Few do. Yet one of the most incredible untold stories in Bitcoin is how Bitcoin is already starting to transform the charitable sector.

It’s unknown because the Bitcoiner at the heart of it is not jumping on podcasts, or doing a lot of PR about it. Instead, he is doing the proof of work: building a team and a project that is revolutionizing the industry from the inside out. But he happens to be a coaching client of mine too, so I put it to him that his story is too inspiring not to share, and he gracefully agreed.

Here then is the story of why charities have started accepting Bitcoin, and how this is already introducing tens of thousands of new people to using Bitcoin as money.

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Bitcoin’s future is bright, and this too will pass. But what’s clear is that for us to re-energize Bitcoin adoption, an earnest review of our past game footage are required.

This letter looks at three core issues that must be resolved in order for adoption to accelerate again.

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Have you ever thought about the paradoxical nature of truth? Of Bitcoin? Of decentralization itself?

Bitcoin is a decentralized monetary protocol. Yet the biggest adopter of Bitcoin is UAE. The biggest nation state adopter of Bitcoin mining is Bhutan. Both are centralized monarchies! In a conversation I had with Prince Filip of…

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Last week’s panel was good … but what we talked about backstage was 10-100x better!

Based on these conversations, in this newsletter I’ll be sharing

• Why nation-state adoption is going slower than expected (confirmed by Prince Filip), and how we can speed it up

• What many Bitcoin Treasuries Companies did wrong, and how we avoid a repeat

• Why Bitcoin adoption needs regulatory clarity everywhere (understood via a scary story)

• Why UAE’s incredible 30% crypto adoption is not a Bitcoin-adoption model we can replicate, and whose model we can replicate

This is ground-level reporting that comes from the people shaping policy and influencing decisions that affect Bitcoin adoption. Their actions directly determine where (and how fast) Bitcoin grows.

Understanding these forces isn't just about me satisfying your curiosity, it's about providing a necessary lens for anyone building, educating or influencing in this space.

PS: This work takes effort. I think it uniquely fills a vital gap in our Bitcoin adoption strategy: revealing blindspots. If you think it’s valuable too, please consider subscribing. It’s one of the simplest ways you can help me bust more FUD, orangepill more institutional investors and uncover more stories that help us speed up Bitcoin adoption.

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For years, it was widely known that you went to Bitcoin Twitter for the top analysis, not to Forbes and mainstream media.

But recently on Twitter we’ve seen a flood of influencers drawing false inferences from charts that have lost their meaning, and as a result giving poor guidance about chart action online. It would be nice to just dismiss this as noise, but this sort of thing actually creates headwinds for Bitcoin adoption.

In this letter we look at the three ways that use of charts that have lost signal is harmful to Bitcoin adoption, and which three (very) commonly-reported Bitcoin charts in particular you should no longer trust this cycle and why.

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After that was released, I got a message from a stranger saying “Thank you so much for your report. I’m one of them.” I asked if he would like his story to be shared in this newsletter and he generously agreed. Warning: what follows is the incredible, some…

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If you denominated that money in $1 bills, you would have enough money to stack from here to the moon 20.68 times. That’s rather a lot.

Right now, 99.997% of that capital is not invested into Bitcoin.

This year, I’ve been on a search for the world’s gatekeepers to that patient capital, the small handful of people who could influence how a lot more of that $72.8 trillion in assets flows into Bitcoin.

Last month I tracked down two of them! In this letter I’m sharing, exclusive to subscribers, their blueprint to orange-pill the world’s largest pools of institutional capital.

The number one blocker they pointed to shocked me, as it revealed a collective blindspot we’ve all had as Bitcoiners. It turns out we’ve been talking to the patient capital crowd all wrong for years. Yet, I was also surprised at how simple most of our past blindspots were to fix, and … the degree to which we can all help.

Hold on tight!

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Dear subscriber

Last month, we released some surprising new data about the accuracy of Mainstream media and Bitcoin Twitter’s takes on how Bitcoin adoption was going.

In this letter, we ask a deeper question:

Does Bitcoin Twitter provide a feel-good accelerant for bullish sentiment that translates into positive price movement?

Or is it unwittingly acting as a price suppressant?

Let’s see what the data it is telling us.

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The city-camp

Imagine a city 50 miles from the Kenya/Somalia border of over 420,000 people (about the size of Minneapolis), a city on no tourist maps, where homes are huts of sticks and cloth, and the struggle for daily survival is a universal reality. This is the Dadaab refugee camp in Kenya, one of the largest in the world, established in 1991 when refugees started fleeing across the Kenyan border during Somalia’s civil war.

For many, like Fatuma who arrived after her husband was killed in an explosion in Mogadishu, Dadaab is a last resort. She now lives with her family in a makeshift hut on the camp's outskirts, a structure patched together from branches and old clothes, where they sleep on dirt and pray the roof doesn't collapse when it rains.

Others, like Saruro (pictured below), have known no other home. She arrived in 1992 as a three-year-old and has since built an entire life here, going to school, getting married, and raising her nine children within the camp's confines. Many residents have spent decades here, with over half of the Somali refugees being under 18 and having spent their entire lives in Dadaab.

Life can be particularly hard if you are a woman. Women live in fear of rape, particularly when venturing out to find basic resources like firewood.

Theft and armed robberies are daily facts of life, with thieves often acting with impunity due to a lack of policing. In response, many refugees have become their own guardians. They organize night patrols, lock gates between camp subdivisions after dark, and use watchmen armed with machetes, sticks, and stones to defend against attackers who often carry AK-47s. As Wiilo Ibrahim (pictured below) explains “We are afraid of thieves. They rob houses, and girls are raped. It is trouble … at night, you have to be on alert.”

Ingenuity

Despite these challenges, human ingenuity survives, and sometimes thrives. While earning money is extremely difficult, it is not impossible. Some, like Hawo Mohamed Abdi, a 29-year-old single mother, have found a lifeline through the digital economy. After taking online business courses, she now works as a translator from her hut in the camp, earning $500 a month, enough to achieve independence and renovate her hut.

Others, like Abdullahi Abdirahman Nur, use similar skills to support his family of eight, even saving enough to relocate his parents to a safer town. However, these stories are the outliers. Most residents rely on dwindling humanitarian aid, and storing money safely is a constant worry in an environment where theft is rampant.

Dadaab is a world of contradictions. It is a temporary refuge camp, that has lasted generations. It is a place where women like Fardowsa (pictured below) a journalist born in the camp, now work to amplify the voices of those within it. It is a camp, but also a city for those who have nowhere else to go.

Aisha

One of those contradictions is Aisha (not her real name). A refugee from the camp who unintentionally showed Bryon Bothun, a former American PeaceCorps worker, the value of Bitcoin - even though she never had the chance to own it herself.

Bryon and his wife Christine met in the PeaceCorps in 1989. Bryon and Christine are now retired, but at the time this story takes place Christine was an occupational therapist working with children with autism, and Bryon was the Director of Bilingual Services in Rochester Public Schools. In his job he helped refugees from over 80 countries, drawing on his own experience being an outsider. He says, “I look around the room and I see the one person who’s different.”

Married with two adult children, the Bothuns continue to live the lessons they learned abroad: that community requires no words, and that sometimes those who have the least, give the most.

This was certainly the case, when Aisha changed the direction of Bryon’s life.

The lightbulb moment

Bryon recalls “We had invited Aisha over one afternoon, and by accident we found ourselves watching Max Keiser when he was first talking about Bitcoin. I was skeptical and spoke my thoughts aloud, saying to Aisha “I don’t see how that could help at all”. Her response caused me to take note. She said “We would have loved to have had that in Dadaab.”

Intrigued, I asked her to tell me more. She explained “You couldn’t keep money. People would come into your hut and they would take it from you. But people had a cellphone and they guarded it with their life, and they overpaid their bill to Safaricom and those credits became M-Pesa.” She said

“If we could have had money that wasn’t dependent on us paying our money to Safaricom each month every single person in that refugee camp would’ve had it.”

That was the first time that I thought, “I hadn’t thought of that, maybe there is something to this.”

She turned on the lights for me, and it’s really thanks to her that I first saw the value of Bitcoin, started using it and started educating others about the value of it.”

Since Aisha’s experience, over 300,000 refugees now use Bitcoin - a number that could have been much higher with better education and understanding of what Bitcoin is. More aid workers knowing about Bitcoin, means more thefts can be prevented. The good news is, this number of refugees using Bitcoin is expected to grow to over 7 Million by 2035.

How you can help

Bitcoin isn't a company, it's a tool for people. It offers returns to a Wall Street Fund Manager, but safety to a refugee. It has no CEO and no ads. Its value is shown in human stories, like Aisha's.

But without a PR team, these stories are rarely told. Most people only hear the jargon, not the hope. They'll understand Bitcoin best through simple stories like this one.

If this story moved you, please pass it on to someone who needs to hear it.

Thanks to our supporters:

We recognize the help of the Human Rights Foundation in bringing you stories like this one.

Dear subscriber

In last month’s letter, we covered six factors that have caused adoption (and price) to slow down.

This month, I’m releasing some new data about where you can get a clear signal on what’s really happening with Bitcoin adoption.

Hint: Bitcoin Twitter isn’t it!

Knowing how Bitcoin adoption is really going is important because it shows you what you can do about it, helps you avoid both bull and bear traps, and gives you clues about how to orange-pill your community.

Let’s dive into the new data

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Dear subscriber

This month we zoom out to see how Bitcoin adoption is (really) going: an objective report-card that is neither the salty take of a Financial Times Columnist, nor the unquantified positive bias of a good section of Bitcoin Twitter.

Among the positives, there are some harsh truths we would do well to face in our quest for widespread adoption of Bitcoin. Then, our optimism will be grounded.

First, the good news: celebrating the wins

The institutional dam is cracking. For the first time in history, major capital allocators are treating Bitcoin not as a speculative toy, but as a strategic reserve asset.

• Hedge Fund Brevan Howard now holds $2.3 billion in Bitcoin. With total Assets Under Management of $35 billion, this represents a significant 6.6% of AUM Bitcoin exposure.

• Mubadala, Abu Dhabi’s $330 billion sovereign wealth fund, has allocated $681 million to Bitcoin. A modest 0.2%, but a seismic first step.

• Bhutan, a sovereign nation, has amassed $1.26 billion in bitcoin, acquired through mining, and representing a jaw-dropping 38% of GDP.

These watershed moments

• world’s first significant hedge-fund to have more than 5% of AUM in Bitcoin

• world’s first Sovereign Fund to have Bitcoin exposure of more than 1/2 Billion

have the potential to positively influence peers in the industry.

Meanwhile, wirehouses, and hedgefunds continue to quietly building positions via ETFs, Bitcoin treasury holdings and now, shares in mining companies. This is how adoption begins, not with a revolutionary bang but with a quiet 13F Filing.

The kick in the pants

The hard truth is that there’s also been three areas where adoption has slowed/stalled, and three areas where adoption has unwound in the last year.

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This month, we lift the lid on a buyer group that could have more impact on price action than either nation states or corporate treasury companies.

These buyers can move faster than nation states, while also contributing more sustained capital flows.

Because these buyers capture capital flows from TradFi, rather than divert finance from existing Bitcoiners as BTC treasury companies tend to, they can have a more explosive price impact.

The group: Sovereign Funds and Pension Funds.

Until recently, they have only dipped their toes in the water. However, based on our research—we believe Bitcoin is now poised for accelerated capital inflows from both these types of funds. We outline our thesis for this, and the impact we see this having on price, in this month’s newsletter.

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The Central African Republic (CAR) uses the CFA franc. The CFA isn’t just currency—it’s a geopolitical chain, backed by France and governed by the Bank of Central African States (BEAC). Of its 14 member nations, the 6 Central African nations (including CAR) must still deposit 50% of foreign reserves in Paris.

This control over reserves fosters economic dependency, while establishing export markets for French goods at favorable terms. In 1994 for example, the CFA was devalued by half, a policy that was influenced by Western pressure, particularly from the IMF. This caused the cost of imports to leap, leading to exporters (mainly EU based) being able to procure resources from CFA nations at half the cost. Locally the impact was devastating, leading to wage freezes, layoffs, and widespread social unrest across CFA countries

When Central African Republic (CAR) announced in 2022 it was adopting Bitcoin as legal tender, BEAC and its regulatory arm COBAC immediately voided the law, citing violations of the CEMAC Treaty. This wasn’t bureaucracy—it was a warning shot from the monetary guardians of la Françafrique.

Why it mattered: To this day, CAR’s economy relies heavily on IMF bailouts. With $1.7Billion in external debt (61% of GDP), defying BEAC meant risking financial isolation.

The IMF’s Silent Campaign

The IMF moved fast. Within two weeks (May 4, 2022), it publicly condemned CAR’s “risky experiment,” citing legal contradictions with CEMAC’s crypto ban. The move raised “major legal, transparency, and economic policy challenges,” the IMF said: similar the concerns the IMF raised about El Salvador’s Bitcoin adoption: risks to financial stability, consumer protection, and fiscal liabilities. (For context, none of those risks materialized in El Salvador).

But their real weapon was leverage. As CAR’s largest creditor, the IMF tied its new Extended Credit Facility (ECF)—a $191M lifeline—to policy compliance.

The Timeline That Tells All

This table traces the IMF’s shadow campaign:

Key to scuttling CAR’s Bitcoin ambitions was ensuring that the Sango project — a blockchain-hub initiative from the CAR government to sell “e-residency” and citizenship for $60K in Bitcoin — did not proceed.

The Sango Project - coincidence or collusion?

In July 2022, CAR launched the Sango Project. It aimed to raise $2.5B (100% of GDP).

It failed catastrophically. By January 2023, only $2M (0.2% of target) was raised. While IMF reports cite “Technical obstacles with 10% internet penetration” as the reason for the failure, our analysis shows a different picture. Two factors scuttled the project.

1. Investor flight

2. A Supreme Court ruling formally blocked the Sango project

However, on closer examination, both of these factors hint at IMF involvement.

Let’s take a closer look at the evidence.

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Setting the scene

It’s early 2023. Most press on Bitcoin is still hostile. The environmental attack vector is the most promine…

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He discovered Bitcoin mining wasn’t the environmental/money laundering disaster outlets like The Economist claimed.

I realized just how desperately the IMF needs Bitcoin to fail.

The line “Neither can live while the other survives” comes to mind, and I’ll leave it for you to decide which one isn’t Harry.

Why does this matter?

Because this newsletter dissects what accelerates or blocks Bitcoin adoption. And right now, the most explosive emerging battleground is between Nation States adopting Bitcoin and the IMF.

Let’s start with Bhutan, because it - not El Salvador - has been the most successful Bitcoin adopter so far across three key metrics:

✅ has amassed a larger Bitcoin Strategic Reserve ($1.2B vs $660M)

✅ bypassed the need for IMF loans completely ($0 IMF loans vs new $1.4B loan)

✅ more profitable since they didn’t purchase any Bitcoin - they turned stranded energy turned into sovereignty (Bitcoin purchase vs Bitcoin mining)

Two Years Into Bhutan’s Bitcoin Experiment—And the IMF Couldn’t Have Been More Wrong

In Bhutan’s case, the IMF’s warnings about nations adopting Bitcoin evaporate faster than the purchasing power of fiat currencies during COVID. The IMF previously claimed nations embracing Bitcoin would face economic destabilization, reduced foreign investment, and environmental harm. Here’s what actually happened:

The Data Speaks

1. Fiscal Lifeline: In June 2023, Bhutan used $72 million from Bitcoin reserves to fund a 50% salary increase for civil servants—directly contradicting the IMF’s fear of "currency instability."

2. Dollar Shield: As foreign reserves dwindled to $464 million, Bitcoin holdings acted as a buffer, preventing a liquidity crisis.

3. Public Goods: Prime Minister Tshering Tobgay in an interview said that bitcoin also "supports free healthcare and environmental projects"

4. Economic Anchor: Tobgay also said their Bitcoin reserves helped in "stabilizing [the nation’s] $3.5 billion economy" — hardly the "volatility trap" the IMF predicted.

5. Investment Magnet: Analysts now suggest Bhutan’s model could attract new foreign capital, especially for renewable energy projects.

The Real Question

The IMF’s projections weren’t just off—they were 180° off. This wasn’t a forecasting error. It was either willful ignorance or a deliberate attempt to scare nations away from monetary sovereignty.

How did Bhutan shatter the IMF’s playbook? The answer lies in three specific moves—each one a blueprint for other nations.

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This month we look in depth at the “Will mining ever become economically unsustainable?” question.

The thesis goes like this “Bitcoin is vulnerable because it depends on mining companies securing the network. However if mining becomes unprofitable, there goes their incentive to secure the network, and there goes the security of the network.

In this newsletter I’ll explain a couple of the major oversights that cause this question to arise in the first place, based as usual on data, not opinions.

First though let’s take a look at some highlights over the last month.

Top Picks

Cambridge's recently released report on Bitcoin mining marks a shift in the conversation around its environmental impact. For the first time, it shows that most of the Bitcoin network (52.4%) is powered by renewable energy sources, up from 37% in their previous report. Other major findings in the report include:

• 26% of mining happens off-grid, often using sustainable energy.

• A drop in emission intensity to 288.2 g CO₂e/kWh. This is significantly lower than previous estimates and other major industries.

• 86.9% of Bitcoin mining equipment is being reused or recycled.

This is big. Cambridge is widely considered the gold standard by policy makers and regulators. But this report got virtually no media attention, so its up to us to make sure that this report is understood far and wide.

One persistent myth that the Cambridge report dismantles is the idea that retired Bitcoin mining equipment has a polluting effect. With the vast bulk of ASIC machines ending up sold, recycled, or repurposed, it's evident that the Bitcoin e-Waste story was only ever that, a story.

DARI's follow-up report further debunks the myth, revealing that mining equipment lasts much longer than critics claim, lacks toxic materials, and is often repurposed to run on intermittent energy once it has been fully ammortized.

Trailblazers

In Norway, Raran Mellerud’s Hashlabs has deployed a small, decentralized, mining-powered heating system designed for drying firewood. The 250 kW Bitcoin mining plant uses hydro-cooled machines to generate 65°C hot water, which is circulated through radiators to heat three industrial buildings, significantly lowering heating costs.

Hashlabs plans to roll out more of these small-scale systems across the region in the coming years.

Meanwhile, Bitcoin mining in Ethiopia, powered mostly by renewable energy, continues to grow with the addition of 52 MW of electricity sourced from the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, a major hydroelectric facility.

This latest expansion by Phoenix Group brings its total mining capacity in the country to 132 MW and pushes its global capacity to 500 MW, contributing to the broader shift toward more sustainable and environmentally friendly mining practices.

Features

I sat down with Nik from The Bitcoin Layer podcast to unpack the latest Cambridge report. Watch ( ~ 37 min).

In this chat with Sean Longstreet on the Leather Wallet podcast, I share how I went from a Bitcoin skeptic to a supporter, what I've learnt about Bitcoin mining, and why I became an advocate for Bitcoin’s climate and humanitarian potential. Watch ( ~ 1 hr).

Lastly I sat down in an episode of the Archie Podcast earlier in the month, to discuss among other things Bitcoin’s emerging convergence with AI. Watch ( ~ 2 hours).

Main Story: Why mining will never be unprofitable

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This month I did a mini European-tour discussing why Bitcoin mining solves Five major energy problems facing humanity. I was in Lisbon, Paris, Bedford UK and London UK, where I met with a number of people in the energy sector and gave three talks, was on three panels, and appeared on two podcasts

It turned out, what I learned was as important as what I shared. There’s an untold story about Bitcoin mining in EU. It’s a story full of optimism. I’ll share in the second part of this newsletter. But first, let’s look at what’s new this month.

Top Picks

There's a growing trend of government-led pro-Bitcoin initiatives. In the US, Senator Ted Cruz has introduced a bill designed to incentivize the use of flared gas for low-cost energy production to power Bitcoin mining operations. This bill, if enacted, will be a double-edged sword; it will utilize flared gas, turning it into productive energy while reducing environmental emissions.

Meanwhile, the French government is considering mining Bitcoin using surplus energy generated by the state-owned energy giant EDF France. While these discussions are early-stage, Bitcoin is ideally suited to solve the issue. The country is currently grappling with a surplus of electricity production, which it has to get rid of by selling at negative prices to its European counterparts, costing it nearly €12,000 per MWh.

This was exactly why Bhutan started mining Bitcoin. Watch this space.

Pakistan is also planning to allocate part of its surplus electricity to Bitcoin mining. The country's rapid expansion of solar energy projects by independent power producers—who were offered incentivized deals, including guaranteed returns and commitments to pay for unused power—has led to a surplus in electricity production at unsustainable levels. In a bid to rescue the situation, the country is turning to Bitcoin miners to use the surplus power.

Perhaps Kenya's power producers can take a leaf out of these cases, considering the country's energy regulatory body, EPRA, compelled its geothermal power producers to cut their optimal electricity output by 511.72 GWh to accommodate larger power imports from Ethiopia.

Beyond using Bitcoin mining to solve energy- and environment-related problems, governments are adopting Bitcoin to shift away from dollar reliance in global trade. Bitcoin's growing reputation as a neutral, decentralized asset makes it an effective monetary asset in a fragmented global financial system. China and Russia are leading the charge, now settling energy transactions in Bitcoin.

As these stories illustrate, Bitcoin is emerging as a powerful tool for reshaping global energy systems, not just global financial systems.

Trailblazers 

Zengamina is a small hydro-power plant tucked in the hills of Ikelenge District in North-Western Zambia. Built in the early 2000s out of charity donations to power a local hospital, the mini hydroelectric plant provides electricity to up to 15,000 locals. But due to slow uptake from the community, the project has struggled over time to meet its operating expenses.

It needed a major user of power to remain sustainable. That came in the form of Bitcoin mining through a partnership with Gridless. Today, the Bitcoin mine accounts for around 30% of the plant's revenue, which has enabled them to keep the prices down for the local community, hence furthering rural electrification while keeping it sustainable. Read more.

Meanwhile, MARA has fully energized a 25 MW data center converting flared natural gas into electricity. In 5 months since Since operations began the project has reduced 29,300 metric tons of CO2 which is equivalent to removing 6,800 gasoline-powered vehicles from the road for an entire year. 

The project was a partnership with NGON, which helps oil companies eliminate the flaring of natural gas. Now, 18% of MARA's power generation profile, which additionally includes wind power projects in Texas and North Dakota, is powered by flared gas.  Read More.

Features

I joined Preston Pysh for a conversation exploring how Bitcoin is transforming the renewable energy sector and reshaping perceptions of energy use. More specifically, we discuss the use of methane from landfills to power mining operations and why the rising energy use from Bitcoin mining isn't inherently negative. (55 min watch)

On another episode of What Bitcoin Did, I sat down with Danny Knowles to explore how the current Bitcoin cycle is different from previous ones, driven by sovereign wealth funds, pension funds, and mining companies, rather than just retail investors (1 hr 18 min watch)

Why I’ve flipped optimistic about Bitcoin in Europe

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What if Bitcoin revolutionizes energy as much as it does money?

What if the impact of Bitcoin’s energy revolution was as positive to humanity as the impact of Bitcoin’s monetary revolution?

What if right under our noses Bitcoin’s impact on energy was already as big as Bitcoin’s impact on money?

When Satoshi created Bitcoin, he birthed not just a monetary revolution, but the twin revolutionary forces of a new approach to money and a new approach to energy.

While Bitcoin’s monetary revolution was by design, the energy revolution is by accident. For this reason, it often doesn’t get the same coverage and attention.

Over the next three newsletters, I’ll be unpacking how Bitcoin mining and the energy sector are about to collide. This accidental Bitcoin revolution is already showing signs of reshaping humanity in a way that has the potential to impact all of our lives.

In this issue, I cover the five reasons why convergence between energy and Bitcoin mining is happening at pace.

In the next issue, I’ll do a deep dive into case studies of where Bitcoin mining and energy is already converging.

In the third issue of the series, I’ll look at future trends, what the world of the near future could look like for energy and Bitcoin companies, and where the new opportunities lie.

Across these three issues, I’ll be sharing new data I’ve been gathering from Bitcoin mining companies, nuclear engineers, renewable energy pioneers, and even landfill experts on why I believe strongly that Bitcoin’s impact on energy will be as big as its impact on money.

In subsequent issues, I’ll also share why Bitcoin’s energy revolution includes AI. I’m not talking of the well-documented pivot of Bitcoin mining companies to AI, but why in the future every AI hyper-scaler will need to be a Bitcoin miner.

Let’s get started:

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In My Last Newsletter, I explored how significant reductions this cycle in:

• Miner capitulations,

• Institutional investor sell-downs, and

• False market signals

would lead to a substantial dip in Bitcoin’s volatility. This, in turn, removes one of the major objections to Bitcoin while also making it a more attractive asset for institutional investors. (As I write this, news has broken that three states voted down Bitcoin Strategic Reserve Bills due to “volatility concerns.”)

In this edition, we’ll examine the two other factors driving down Bitcoin’s volatility:

1. Distributions from strong hands to stronger hands, and

2. Greater price resilience against FUD.

Let’s dive in!

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