Bitcoin Politiek

I just about fell off my chair. In what is a significant shift, The Financial Times just published its first cautiously pro-Bitcoin ESG article. ft.com/content/b26b5af8-0cf1…

Pride You have been asleep if you have not noticed it: this year the narrative about Bitcoin and the environment has changed.  Utterly.  Scientific papers, industry reports, news reports, new data and inspiring stories pour in, with ever increasing volume, intensity and validity, showing what the Bitcoin mining industry has been saying for some time:  Bitcoin drives renewable innovation and makes it more profitable; scavenges the stranded energy and reduces emissions; and helps some of the poorest, most disenfranchised in the world to gain sovereignty, dignity and freedom.  Here's why this matters: pride.  Not a boastful pride, but the pride of one whose thoughts and actions are directed with understanding and awareness to a cause bigger than themselves. Last year I met Bitcoiners who told me in an embarrassed way they were into Bitcoin, but felt guilty about its environmental impact.  I met people who were reluctant to say they wanted to do their thesis on Bitcoin. I met people in NGOs too timid to ask that they accept Bitcoin payments. I met people too resigned to challenge an ESG Investment Committee's objections to Bitcoin. I no longer hear this.  Bitcoiners are no longer a thermometer for society's views on Bitcoin - calibrating what others think and fitting in. Now they are a thermostat. They are standing tall in their conviction of its benefit, using data to change people's minds, hearing people's misconceptions and declaring why and how Bitcoin helps people and the planet.  They are speaking with pride, challenging with confidence, creating the future through action.  When a legacy NGO attempted to use the "skull of satoshi" to malign Bitcoin, Bitcoiners love-bombed the artist, embraced his art, and armed him with facts to the extent he tweeted "a change in the code is not the answer" When the NYTimes attacked Bitcoin, a whole colony of honeybadgers picked apart a journalistic travesty using a non-violent weapon more powerful than any the NYTimes had at their disposal: truth.  When Marathon was attacked in "The Hill" for greenwash, Marathon responded with calm, non-boastful pride, pointing out the neglected truth that they were on target for zero emissions, leading innovation into heat recycling, and had just started an exciting foray into the emission negative territory of landfill-gas powered mining.  Nietzsche once said "What does not kill me makes me stronger". He might have been talking about Bitcoin. Every time an attack is launched, new silent Bitcoiners become activist Bitcoiners. But it is a non-violent revolution. Now when people say "Bitcoin is destroying the planet" - Bitcoiners are saying: "I'm sorry, you must have read some old or bad data. Things have changed a lot this year" They are saying "This is something I've looked into. Would you like to hear?" They are saying "Nothing could be further from the truth. Bitcoin is the Best environmental asset of our time" No longer defensive.  No longer apologetic.  No longer incredulous.  But fuelled by the unstoppable twin-forces of fact and pride.  This year I have talked to hundreds of Bitcoiners who now respond with pride when challenged. And it is having an impact. They are turning around the false-narrative of their environmentally minded friends, their spouses, their investment committees, their NGOs.  There is much work to be done, and the legacy politicians and environmental organisations will continue to sing out of tune as the world turns, casting them increasingly into the shadows of history.  This shift did not happen because of the Blackrock ETF. This happened because a grassroots movement stood up and fought for what they believed in   @Dennis_Porter_ , with a budget 1/50 the size of the opponents has pro-Bitcoin bills in front of 10 states. @thetrocro has been tirelessly turning around Journalists, artists, leaders, environmentalists with data, patience and the conviction of a man who stands for something that advances all humanity.  Onchain analysts such as @willywoo have gotten behind the shift and fought FUD with fact, conjecture with chart, reactiveness with research.  And there were many many others. Just 18 months ago I was told on twitter "you are the most insane person on earth" for suggesting Bitcoin was environmentally net positive. Our attackers are no longer saying this.  As Steve Jobs once said "Here's to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently...You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward." Every person who has gone down the rabbit hole of Bitcoin knows this anthem describes their journey.  One thing that we may come to appreciate in a few more blocks time is the reason it is irrepressible is found not just in the brilliance of the algorithm, but in the spirit of its supporters: the builders, the miners, the philosophers, the journalists, the politicians, the men and women, liberals and conservative, the affluent and the not-yet-affluent from every corner of the world who are behind it. Bitcoin is not just a technology, or an asset, or a form of currency or money: it is a movement.  You are part of that movement. Be proud.  We are all Satoshi.

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