The White House is Wrong About Bitcoin Mining with Nic Carter

 
 

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“My whole objective here was just to really meticulously go through their document and show that they don’t have a better command of the facts then we do, they’re relying on bad data, they’re relying on bad sources and academics, and they should do better.”
— Nic Carter

SHOW DESCRIPTION

Nic Carter is a Partner at Castle Island Ventures and co-founder and Chairman of Coin Metrics. In this interview, we discuss the White House bitcoin mining research paper, regulation and the role of renewables in the energy mix.

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In September, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) published a study which looked into the climate impacts of bitcoin mining.

The report successfully acknowledged the differences between PoS and PoW, the contribution of bitcoin mining to grid flexibility & demand response and the potential to unlock stranded renewables, but the rest of the report offers little, if any merit.

Overall, the findings in this report were quite damning. The report relies on non-peer-reviewed and often totally flawed data from the likes of De Vries and Digiconomist and even cites the absurd 2018 Mora et al paper. As Nic says in his article, "The Mora reference is shocking. It's a bit like reading a scientific government report on the history of the moon landing and finding a reference to a conspiracy website claiming that the entire thing was faked."

With papers like this from the White House, the New York Mining Moratorium Bill and general growing disdain for Bitcoin mining, the US risks giving up its headstart. It is the country with the most to lose, and as we saw when China banned mining, Bitcoin is totally agnostic, and by banning, or overregulating, America won't hurt bitcoin, only itself. "If you ban it, you empower your enemies, like Russia, Iran, Venezuela, and North Korea. If you embrace it, you directly hurt them, and give their citizens tools to free themselves from those oppressive regimes."

TIMESTAMPS

00:02:07: Introductions
00:02:53: White House OSTP report
00:07:18: ESG movement waging war on oil and gas
00:14:42: Positive sections of the report
00:17:18: Lack of data from mining companies
00:24:57: Potential regulations and possible mining bans
00:31:35: Salty critics of mining, and more diversity in Bitcoin
00:36:53: Bitcoin mining strengthening the grid, and ERCOT
00:44:25: Risk of excessive US hashrate
00:46:07: The role of renewables in the energy mix
00:55:21: Lack of academic rigour, de Vries vs Cambridge
01:06:08: Mora et al 2018 citation
01:09:36: Further false accusations from the paper
01:12:44: Report recommendations, and the midterms explained
01:17:38: Bitcoin Mining Council
01:23:07: Final comments

 

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SHOW NOTES

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Mentioned in the interview:

Other Relevant WBD Podcasts:

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