From Trey Walsh, Executive Director of The Progressive Bitcoiner
As most of you know by now, either by personally holding it or seeing it in the news, Bitcoin recently crossed the much anticipated threshold of $100,000 per coin. While this is an incredible feat and shows the obvious interest and resilience of this 16 year old technology and network, particularly when cycle after cycle those in media say Bitcoin is dead or useless, this is just one small part of Bitcoin’s incredible story, use case, and reason for existing really.
As many of us advocating for Bitcoin say, Bitcoin is Freedom Go Up.
Bitcoin’s trojan horse is its price movement via supply and demand mechanisms. Because there will only ever be 21 million bitcoins, this brings scarcity and a deflationary design to Bitcoin, which plays a huge part in its price movements and value. One of the things that clicked early on for me, particularly after hearing from human rights activists like Alex Gladstein, Farida Nabourema, and early bitcoin educators like Andreas Antonopoulos, is that one thing we can rely on in this world, that is often seen as a negative (particularly from folks on the left like myself), is greed and self-interest. Even those that come to Bitcoin with purely greed and self-interest at heart help to benefit the network, protocol, and growth of this Bitcoin movement and protocol which empowers individuals. I’ll provide a couple of examples.
Bitcoin Mining – Providing Societal and Renewable Energy Benefits
I’m not suggesting all bitcoin miners are filled with purely greed and self-interest. But even if they are…hear me out. Bitcoin mining is a tricky and competitive business, and each 4 year cycle sees a further crunch on the economics of those looking to mine bitcoin as the bitcoin subsidy/reward (new bitcoins “minted” if you will) gets cut in half (currently at 3.125 bitcoins every 10 min roughly). So Bitcoin miners are constantly searching for the cheapest electricity and most efficient ways to run their operations. Here are ways bitcoin miners bring about incredible societal benefits:
Renewable Energy – More and more the cheapest forms of electricity are found in renewable energy sources due to technological advancements and the ability for bitcoin miners to be location and time agnostic. Bitcoin miners also take advantage of the excess energy often created by renewables (at off peak times when the energy is literally being wasted). Bitcoin miners also help contribute to expanding renewable energy projects. For example, Gridless builds renewable energy mini-grids in rural Africa and uses Bitcoin mining to monetize excess electricity, making the projects financially sustainable. The Bitcoin mining provides a steady demand for power, creating profits that subsidize infrastructure costs and lower electricity prices for local communities
Grid Stabilization – Bitcoin miners are uniquely suited to respond to grid conditions because they can quickly adjust their energy consumption. This flexibility can help stabilize grids during periods of high demand or low supply and reduce the need for fossil-fuel-powered peaker plants, which are often used during energy demand spikes. Miners like Riot Platforms also participate in demand response programs, temporarily reducing their energy use when grid demand is high, supporting overall grid reliability.
There are endless examples of the benefits bitcoin mining can bring to society, communities, renewable energy expansion in our battle against climate change, and more. I’d encourage you all to follow the work of Daniel Batten, Margot Paez, Troy Cross, and Elliot David to learn more about bitcoin mining and the environment.
Human Rights and Freedom Fighters
As an open, permissionless, decentralized network that anyone can participate in, Bitcoin is an empowering tool for every individual on the planet regardless of your location, economic status, age, gender, religion, and on and on. It is the ultimate tool for financial inclusion, and those seeking to hold a money/asset that cannot be debased by governments, nor confiscated by bad actors (if it is held in self-custody—not your keys, not your bitcoin!)
In fact, even dictators like Vladimir Putin know that Bitcoin cannot be stopped by anyone, including himself. Just last week, he had this to say about Bitcoin:
Via our podcast we’ve had numerous conversations about Bitcoin for human rights with activists, nonprofits, philosophers, and beyond which we encourage you to check out. Quite literally almost every episode we’ve done includes a component of this because we know how important and critical this is to Bitcoin’s story and purpose.
The examples of empowerment and human rights are endless, including as a way to preserve wealth under hyperinflation and fight government chokeholds in places like Venezuela, Nigeria, and Afghanistan, fund movements and protests that have faced challenges due to de-banking under the traditional financial system including in Hong Kong and even Canada with the trucker protests, and further enable donations to hard to reach parts of the world in a frictionless way like what the Human Rights Foundation does to get funding to developers, projects and activists around the world.
So remember, particularly for our U.S. based audience, the next time you see Bitcoin in the news mostly dominated by narratives about the rich getting richer on wall street, President Trump and politics, a bitcoin strategic reserve for the U.S. government, or politicians railing against Bitcoin as useless and just for criminals…there is another side to all of this, the global picture of Bitcoin as a tool for human rights, everyday people, building a brighter, more hopeful future that empowers individuals and communities.
Still don’t believe me? Well here’s a hopeful message from Bitcoin advocate and Progressive Congressman form California Ro Khanna at The Bitcoin Conference this past summer in Nashville.
