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Daniel Batten
Dsbatten@nostrich.love
npub13lky...lpsy
Focusing 2026 on coaching Bitcoin builders and leaders newsletter: danielbatten.substack.com
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dsbatten 6 months ago
Looks like I’ll be posting more on Nostr and less on Twitter coming up.
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dsbatten 6 months ago
Why this report on refugees using bitcoin is so important. Until now we’ve not had a quantified report showing the volume of people benefitting from bitcoin. That has meant critics could say “oh but social benefit x is only impacting a few people”, or “oh but that’s just anecdotal” Now, that response is not possible. Now, there is not just evidence but quantified evidence about the lives of those in need that bitcoin supports: ie - the displayed men, women and children who are most vulnerable people in the world. Now, when you claim out of ignorance “bitcoin has no use” you are saying “the lives of 329,000 refugees are useless” I’ll be jumping on a couple of podcasts to share the report in a week or two. In the meantime, have a read. It’s very visual and feasible and it will help you stop dead the “bitcoin is useless” FUD and orange pill more people who care about humanitarian causes.
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dsbatten 6 months ago
Saw a few posts on X last week about France proposing bitcoin mining. Here's a bit of context (Nostr-only post). 1. Yes, it is positive that this is being discussed with the French National Assembly. The Bitcoin mining subject was introduced by Marine Le Pen. She was initially anti-Bitcoin, but has followed Trump's lead in changing her stance. This happened firstly because she is pro-Trump and quite influenced by him, but also because of some good conversations behind the scenes in France where a couple of Bitcoiners helped her better understand its utility 2. With the current parliament, there is not enough support for any Bitcoin mining bill to go through. 3. This could change with a new parliament. This isn't scheduled to happen until 2027 but could happen as early as later this year due to the French parliament not being able to reach agreement on a budget. 4. Mining in EU can happen anyway, without state-level initiatives to do mining. The great thing is that people are starting to realize and talk about the considerable amount of wasted (nuclear) energy that could easily be used for Bitcoin mining, generating billions of dollars. 5. iNBi (France's Bitcoin Policy Institute) are doing some important work to shift perspectives and educate people about Bitcoin and Bitcoin mining across the political spectrum. That's one of the reasons (but not the only one) that you're hearing more about Bitcoin mining in this part of the world.
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dsbatten 6 months ago
Digital Assets Research Institute (DARI) just put out an amazing report on bitcoin use among refugees. 329k have already used bitcoin to take safely across borders. Could reach 7.5M by 2035. At this point, people who still think bitcoin has no usecase are just plain clueless
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dsbatten 6 months ago
Media like The Guardian loves to highlight a problem. But refuses to cover the well-documented solution. The solution is bitcoin mining. It does not require government subsidies, it’s already ended flaring in a lot of regions, it could end the wasteful and polluting practice of gas flaring around the world, but The Guardian has been complicit in helping perpetuate the practice of flaring by its ignorant attacks on the solution that can quickly end the very problem it keeps on pointing out. image
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dsbatten 8 months ago
Volatility has become one of the major sources of FUD used on Bitcoin in institutional investment circles. Here’s the general theme of how I respond to it. Hope it helps. "Bitcoin is too volatile to have as a store of value" is not a fact, it is an admission of ignorance. At worst, it is intentionally misleading. Here's why. Firstly, yes Bitcoin is volatile. Bitcoin’s short-term volatility mirrors Amazon stock’s trajectory: similar drawdowns and exponential growth. But this misses the point: As a Fund Manager of a Pension or Sovereign Wealth Fund that invests in Stores of Value, the only chart that matters is Bitcoin’s 200-Week Moving Average (~4 years) Notice it ✅ Is not volatile ✅ Is always up and right ✅ Outperforms all assets Why 4+ Years Matter Institutions (pensions, sovereign funds) hold SOV assets for 10–30 years. Bitcoin’s 4-year cycle aligns perfectly with intergenerational strategies. Volatility is irrelevant if: →The long-term trend holds (200WMA ↑), → Fundamentals strengthen (adoption/scarcity), → It outperforms alternatives (stocks, gold, fiat) (Which Bitcoin does on all three counts) The "Stability" Paradox The Traditional view says "A store of value must be stable (e.g., gold’s slow moves). However this is not just an outdated view, it is factually incorrect to conflate short term stability with long term store of value. For example, USD is "stable" short-term but loses ~90%+ purchasing power over 50 years (very poor store of value). Bitcoin by contrast is only volatile short-term, but it is also the best SOV ever created. Volatility Actually Matters only if: ❌ The asset fails to recover (e.g: hyperinflating currencies) ❌ It loses adoption (e.g: unlimited-supply crypto imitators of Bitcoin) ❌ A superior alternative emerges (e.g: gold at some point being superseded as a SOV by Bitcoin) Here's why short-term fluctuations seem important (but aren’t to strong hands) Psychological Impact: volatility can scare weak hands into selling Liquidity Needs: If you’re forced to sell during a dip Narrative: Short-term volatility fuels media FUD ("Bitcoin is dead!") In other words, short term fluctuations are an issue to fund managers who base their investment decisions on emotions not fundamentals, have mismanaged their fund and need short term liquidity, or who rely on the media rather than institutional alpha. To put it bluntly, short term fluctuations matter to weak hands, mismanaging hands, and uninformed hands. For long term holders such as Pension Fund and Sovereign Wealth Fund Managers, short-term noise is irrelevant. They zoom out and act on fundamentals, not emotions (assuming they are following their fiduciary duty). By contrast, to claim "Bitcoin is too volatile for a SOV" admits either: Ignorance of Bitcoin’s non-volatile 4-year trend, or Emotion-driven investing (a shocking flaw for any fund manager). If you hear a fund manager say "Bitcoin is too volatile as a store of value", they are revealing more about themselves than they are about Bitcoin. Specifically, they are telling you that they don't have strong, steady, well-informed hands. In which case, find someone who does. image
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dsbatten 8 months ago
My fireside chat with John Perkins from Bitcoin 2025 is now 🔥 live🔥 ! This is a must-watch for anyone who cares about the intersection of global finance, human rights, geopolitics, and the promise of Bitcoin as a more egalitarian and equitable system of value for humanity. Link to video 👇 image
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dsbatten 8 months ago
My new Bitcoin Magazine article is out Ever been explaining how Bitcoin helps millions in the global south (hyperinfated, unbanked, fleeced by remittances) only to hear "But can't stablecoins/ETH do that?" They can't and they aren't. Here's why 👇
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dsbatten 8 months ago
For every time I write an open letter on X to a media outlet about their Bitcoin coverage, I probably write 2 to media outlets behind the scenes. It's slow going. But over time ... it's paying off. image
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dsbatten 8 months ago
“What is freedom?” “What do breathwork and Bitcoin have in common?” “What’s the biggest determinant of the habits you form?” Got asked a different set of questions on this pod and really enjoyed the chance to branch outside my usual topics, as well as some familiar ones.
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dsbatten 8 months ago
I was on a podcast with Archie (Bitcoin Archive) recently. We talked about how the “bitcoin was bad for the environment” myth was created, how we squashed it, the real story, and the long tail of work still to be done.
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dsbatten 9 months ago
This is one of my favorite podcasts I've been on. Yet very few people will see it. Why? 1. Because it is not from 'well known' podcasters, the Twitter algo will derate it 2. I don't only talk about Bitcoin, but spent the first 51mins talking about life before Bitcoin 3. A lot of it was about Bitcoin, but the audience of the podcast is non-Bitcoiners Yet these are the people we need to reach more. And, just because you like Bitcoin, doesn't mean that's the only swimlane you live in. Grateful that we have Nostr, which encourages the exploration of themes outside a narrow algorithmic swimlane.