Bitcoin gaslighting was ‘patient zero’ in 2018 Digiconomist: ESG analyst
Bitcoin environmentalist Daniel Batten said in 2018 that a “single comment” by Digieconomist founder Alex de Vries had caused “all the junk science on Bitcoin's environmental impact” over the years.
“We found patient zero,” Batten said in the December 12 X thread.
While Batten did not indicate the exact opinion, he previously criticized a May 2018 report from de Vries titled “Bitcoin's Growing Power Crisis.”
Digiconomist is a platform “dedicated to exposing the unintended consequences of digital trends”.
According to Batten, data from litmaps shows that energy-related news stories and other academic commentary on Bitcoin frequently return to this dimension, leading to “Bitcoin gaslighting in the mainstream media.”
Daniel Batten's litmap traces the FUUD origins of Bitcoin's power consumption to Alex de Vries. Source: Daniel Batten
“Most of the public has been misinformed for many years, and as a result, many investment committees, regulators and policy makers still do not know that 13 of the last 15 papers support the environmental benefits of Bitcoin.”
Digiconomist runs a “Bitcoin Electronic Waste Monitor” which states that Bitcoin generated 40.97 kilotons of electronic waste in the last 12 months, amounting to 230.10 grams per transaction.
However, Batten, a climate tech capitalist focused on debunking bitcoin FUD, believes that the use of energy per transaction scale is “fundamentally flawed.”
“Bitcoin's energy usage does not come from the transactions, so it can increase the transaction volume significantly without increasing emissions.”
Batten's method used by de Vries has now been published in several academic journals, such as ResearchGate, ScienceDirect and Nature.
“That's why 96% of the media […] They are no longer underestimating Bitcoin's environmental impact.
Many of these outlets have begun to cover Bitcoin's environmental benefits, Batten said, citing Reuters, Yahoo Finance, Forbes and the Financial Times in a Dec. 12 X post.
Despite the progress, Batten noted that there is “a lot of retraining to be done” before mainstream acceptance of “Bitcoin mining as part of climate action” comes.
Cointelegraph reached out to de Vries and did not get an immediate response.
Related: Why tech giants like Amazon may be hesitant to accept Bitcoin
According to the Bitcoin ESG forecast, 54.5% of Bitcoin mining operations will come from sustainable resources.
Digiconomist in 2010 As reporting on Bitcoin began in 2018, the mainstream media became increasingly critical of Bitcoin's power consumption.
For example, the Washington Post described bitcoin as “energy gluttony” — something that uses excess or greed — in an October 2018 report that could harm the Earth's climate.
“If the planet continues its rapid growth, it could take it to dangerous temperature levels,” The Washington Post said, citing “new research” without specifying the source.
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