In the EU, the G in ESG stands for Gaslighting
In Brazil it stands for, well, Governance
ESG Inside, a Brazilian sustainability media company just became the 16th sustainability-focused media outlet to report positively on the environmental benefits of Bitcoin mining
They covered the investment by Itau Unibanco (Brazil's largest bank) into Minter, a startup that uses Bitcoin at renewable energy sites where the power would otherwise be wasted
But this is the bit that shows ESG working as it should: Phillippe Schlumpf, head of Itau Ventures (the bank's corporate VC arm) said this about the investment:
"Minter's thesis combines two relevant vectors: the expansion of renewable generation and the growing demand for computational infrastructure ... [addressing] curtailment in a flexible way, close to the point of generation, with attention to governance."
Imagine any EU banker publicly stating that Bitcoin mining supports renewable expansion and addresses curtailment with "operational discipline and attention to governance." For political reasons (it threatens ECB's attempt to control the narrative on Bitcoin) - that would be career limiting to say the least. In Brazil, freed from that political constraint, banks can do what makes commercial and ESG sense.
The environmental benefits highlighted by ESG Inside are worth listing because they're the same ones that 24 peer-reviewed publications have been establishing for years - it's just that now a major bank's investment team is saying them out loud:
- monetizes wasted renewable energy that generators are currently being forced to curtail
- provides flexible, interruptible load that stabilises the grid by absorbing surplus and releasing it on demand
- enables 100% renewable-source Bitcoin mining without diverting grid power from households
Meanwhile, the EU continues to instruct officials to write reports labelling Bitcoin environmentally harmful (even though the paper underpinning that view has now been debunked). But the actual data, the peer reviewed science, the countries deploying renewables at scale, and even their bankers, are reaching the opposite conclusion in increasing numbers.
The G in ESG is supposed to mean governance - making evidence-based decisions with transparency and accountability.
The irony is not lost on me that it is the LATAM economy which has been busy doing that, while EU stays busy gaslighting.
Itaú Unibanco lidera rodada Série A em startup de infraestrutura digital que monetiza energia renovável excedente | ESG Inside
So many ancillary revenue sources for Bitcoin miners now - to the extent in Europe the sats are generally the 2ndary revenue source.
Saying you've flipped to ETH because you're concerned Bitcoin Mining is unsustainable due to lack of a security budget is like deciding to trade your piano for a xylophone because you are concerned there isn't enough ivory left to make piano keys anymore
At the end of 2023 I met the person who ran GreenpeaceUSA's campaign against Bitcoin.
I expected it to be tense.
It wasn't.
He told me he'd read every response to every post I'd made on Twitter.
"I wish we'd engaged with you and people like you from the outset," he said.
Two months later he left Greenpeace. A few months after that they ended the campaign entirely.
It was the most well-funded, yet the worst result in their history.
I keep coming back to that phrase. "People like you." Not me. A whole group. Troy Cross, Margot Paez, Elliot David, Susie Violet Ward and many others.
We were working independently, with no budget and no coordination. We just shared data and conviction.
It is a great story of a decentralized response beating a multi-million dollar centralized campaign, not by being louder but by a combination of being right and expressing that truth in such a way that reasonable people could see.
And it is a recipe we can use again and again.
If you look at your vision and think "I don't have the skills to pull that off", you're probably right.
You don't. At least not yet.
But that's the whole point.
The person who will implement your vision is not the person you are today, it's the person you become in the pursuit of it.
I've seen this happen enough times now, both in my own life and in the founders I've worked with.
The doubt is real. But it's a photograph of who you are right now, not a prediction of who you'll be.
So if you're looking at a goal thinking "I can't do that" - good! That's the sign it's probably the right assignment, because your growth will be a necessary component in the fulfilment of your vision.
Imagine
... if you believed in yourself as much as you believe in Bitcoin
-- if you defended yourself against your inner critic as strongly as you defended Bitcoin against outer critics
... if you dismantled your own fears, uncertainties and doubts as effectively as you disregarded FUD about Bitcoin
For Bitcoin to win, the work of making sure you are a strong node in the network is not optional. It is mandatory.
Because Bitcoin alone will not change the world. But Bitcoin together with a network of unstoppable Bitcoiners does.
No earth day event is complete without looking at the importance of Bitcoin mining to preserving our environment, stabilizing our grids and mitigating methane. Great to see this now being taught in schools.
Seek and destroy the FUD which is the sniper in the dark.
But to destroy, you must first be able to see it.
Africa has already validated the usecase for Bitcoin as a medium of exchange "𝟳𝟬% 𝗼𝗳 𝗮𝗹𝗹 Bitcoin 𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗻𝘀𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 𝗼𝗳 𝗹𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝗻 $𝟭,𝟬𝟬𝟬 𝗲𝗶𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗿𝘁 𝗼𝗿 𝗲𝗻𝗱 𝗼𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗔𝗳𝗿𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗻 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗲𝗻𝘁" source:
Chainalysis
Sub-Saharan Africa Crypto Adoption Trends and Analysis
Cryptocurrency has penetrated key markets in Africa and become an important part of daily life for many residents. Read to learn how and why.
"Crypto has penetrated key markets and become an important part of many residents’ day-to-day lives."
With the combination of autocracy and high inflation, use of Bitcoin in Nigeria is off the charts (see image below)
Bitcoin's % use is increasing as a medium of exchange in Africa, as education improves and people understand its the only decentralized, censorship-resistant digital currency.
This is thanks to a number of Bitcoiners working tirelessly in Africa.
Putting this out here on Nostr first:
Who'd be potentially interested if we ran a retreat specially for Bitcoiners in Costa Rica?
I've noticed that the fiat-mindset likes to stack stuff. But Bitcoiners like to stack experiences.
So the idea would be to structure an unforgettable experience that leads to new friendships, and bringing back more energy than you came with, which leaving behind all your stresses.
We'd visit the Bitcoin jungle (Uvita) which has the highest concentration of business owners using Bitcoin anywhere in the world, whalewatching, watch the sun set on the beach of Esterillos. And you can't go to Costa Rica without doing a full reset and recharge from the madness of the world with powerful breathwork and then silent meditation retreat in La Montaña Azul. We'll also leave plenty of white space for the type of inspiring Bitcoin conversations that change the world too.
Looking at Thurs 9 July - Sat 18 July as potential dates.
Send me a comment of DM if this sound like the sort of experience you'd like to stack.
There are 3 instruments that destroy FUD.
I recently realized that this applies to the own inner critic that holds you back just as much as an outer critic who tries to hold Bitcoin back
Why a high standard of clarity and communication is required when talking about Bitcoin:
Misinformation travels 10x further than the truth, and gets 10x the coverage - so anyone articulating the truth need to state it 100x more clearly, just to reach parity.
Imagine if I said to you "Earth is an uninhabitable place to live"
You look at me sideways and say "Ah... why?"
I reply "Planets are awful bad. Pluto/Uranus/Neptune, you'd freeze. Mercury, you'd burn. Venus, you'd be poisoned. Jupiter and Saturn, you'd be crushed. Mars: nothing to breath.
It's true. Most of the planets, including over 5700 exoplanets, are really really bad places to live.
The conclusion that this means earth is uninhabitable is a basic logic fail.
Now imagine some self-proclaimed crypto-commentator tells you "Bitcoin is a scam"
Again, you look at him sideways and say "Ah... why?"
He replies "Most crypto has gone to zero. VCs dump on retail. Memecoins are complete rugpulls. Pre-mined tokens, you get diluted to oblivian. ICOs, you're the exit-liquidity for founders and early investors.
It's true. Most of the thousands of cryptocurrencies launched since 2009 are complete scams.
But again, the conclusion that this makes Bitcoin a scam is equally a basic logic 101 fail.
Earth is the only planet with a breathable atmosphere, the right temperature band, and liquid water.
Bitcoin is the only cryptocurrency with the combination of no insider enrichment, a fixed supply that nobody can change, and a 17-year unhacked decentralised ledger.
In both cases, some very special and unique features make the general rule inapplicable to the one obvious exception.
This logical fallacy has been around long enough to have a name. Aristotle spotted it about 2,300 years ago and called it the "Fallacy of Accident" - taking a pattern that's true for a category and forcing it onto the one member where evidence shows it obviously doesn't hold.
A few days ago, Ben McKenzie sat on Jon Stewart's podcast and committed this exact logic-fail: citing crypto's failures as his evidence against Bitcoin.
He's not the only one to fail in this way. Paul Krugman, Elizabeth Warren, Jamie Dimon, Christine Lagarde all conflated Bitcoin with all crypto for years. Many journalists still fail to distinguish Bitcoin from all other crypto (though the better ones are starting to).
In fact, this fallacy has been deployed for years with impunity by people who either don't know, or forgot to mention that Bitcoin has unique features making it materially different from all other crypto.
The irony is that Bitcoiners and crypto-critics are on the same page: the rugpulls, the insider enrichment, the tokens engineered to extract value from retail investors are all things that Bitcoiners like @CorySwan and other have been vocally calling out for over a decade, long before category-conflating journalists and actors from teen dramas decided they had an opinion about it.
It's not that hard
Unless you have the attention-span of a gnat-fly, you can easily do 5 mins research (AI-assisted if you really want) and discover either what the core differences are between Earth and all other planets, between Bitcoin and all other crypto.
Earth is an incredibly, uniquely habitable planet for humans to live.
Bitcoin is an incredible, uniquely suitable form of currency for humans to use.
What do you say if someone says "But Bitcoin mining blockrewards won't be profitable soon and fees are not enough to sustain mining."
Here's how I just responded
I completely get why you'd be concerned that fees are not enough to provide ancillary mining revenue as halvings but into block rewards. And you're right, this was a big concern a few years ago.
The reason it is no longer an issue for mining companies is because they have found a myriad of ancillary revenue sources including grid stabiliization (demand response, FCAS, 4CP, blackstart in particular), heat recycling, carbon credits, RECs. I was talking to a mining company 3 days ago that's now regularly earning 2/3 of their income through proactive grid stabilization. This is why I have no concerns about the long-term economic viability of mining.
Cory introduced me to a couple of VCs a while ago. But they didn't want to talk so much about the coaching work I did with founders.
They wanted to know how Bitcoin mining could save the planet.
... and I was happy to share exactly how that worked
Apparently I've now done 7,090 FUD-busting related tweets about Bitcoin across 5 categories (Environmental, Criminal/Terrorist, Ponzi/Scam/Bubble, Political/Partisan, Technical FUD). 🤣
Unsurprisingly, 4,318 of them (61%) were on environmental FUD and benefits of Bitcoin, but surprisingly the best performing rebuttals or pre-emptive positive messages about Bitcoin have been when I've been responding to the nonsense message "Bitcoin is used by criminals"
Coaching a number of Bitcoiners, I've found that the inner critic causes more damage to Bitcoin innovation than any outer critic ever can.
But happily, when you disarm this, no Bitcoin critic can stand in your way
Government of France: providing free Bitcoin marketing since 2015
doing free Bitcoin marketing since 2015
The Bitcoin Policy Institute of France was catalyzed by a single unknown Bitcoiner who took a few smart, bold, needle-moving moves, were encouraged by a group of other Bitcoiners on our coaching group. It is now influencing across the political spectrum. You have more potential inside you than you think.
When you're talking to people about Bitcoin (or anything), your content is relatively less important. emotion creates motion
