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Daniel Batten
Dsbatten@nostrich.love
npub13lky...lpsy
I like turning waste into power. Landfill gas. Eroding currencies. The human potential. danielbatten.co
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dsbatten 6 days ago
The surprising power of the peer group BTW: these posts go on Nostr, not X - because X derates any post that is not about Bitcoin so much, they actually get more engagement here, even though I have less than 10% the followers on Nostr OK, on with the story A couple of years ago, I was running our first group call after our mastermind retreat. One of the five founders could not make it. He came onto the group call the following week and listened in as the other four one after the other described what had changed for them since retreat. He listened, and spoke last. When his turn came, he reflected: "I was in the complete opposite mindset." He shared that he’d had a bad week at work. I asked “What was it like hearing the others’ wins.” His answer surprised me. He said it was uncomfortable at first, but … “that discomfort was what sort of catalyzed a lot of the reflection, and the others are reminding me of what I know I need to do with their wins” The following week, something extraordinary happened. He’d completed his first full draft ready for their first US customer, his productivity changed, and he had an energy level that he said surprised him. How did this happen? He had not been at the retreat He hadn’t received any specific coaching guidance from me that week He hadn’t gotten any pristine new information from a book. Nobody held him to account for anything he had said he would do. One thing happened: he sat in the presence of four peers who were moving ahead. I even asked whether anyone had told him anything he did not already know. He reflected: "No. It was being able to recognize that these [actions the others were taking] were the things that I kinda knew I should be doing." Often the coach gets the credit when a client gets a great result. That’s at best only half the story. I recently discovered what the research says matters even more. Harris for example (Psychological Review 1995) found that for social behavior generally, the peer group is more influential than one’s own parents. But this was the cleanest firsthand evidence I saw ever for the power of the peer group. Because the other variables that could have turned around his behaviors were all stripped out. Yet he still changed his behavior fundamentally inside seven days, based purely on being in a group with four people who inspired him to a different standard. Who is your peer group? And are they helping you to become the next version of yourself, or supporting you to remain the version that doesn’t threaten them?
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dsbatten 1 week ago
Why do most people still have a negative impression of Bitcoin? 87:1 negativity bias For context, the news media has a negativity bias anyway which is 9.1:1 in US and less in other places. But this is 9.5x more extreme than the most extreme negativity bias outside Bitcoin reporting. Imagine you amplify the static on a beautiful music track you listen to by 87x til you can no longer hear the real music. That's why the most people never hear the real signal. image
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dsbatten 2 weeks ago
I'm biased because Luke is one of my clients, but I'd say this anyway - this is the most uplifting Bitccoin podcast I've heard this year. A reproducable story about how a couple have orangepilled their local community, using the principles of game, service-mindset and hope.
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dsbatten 2 weeks ago
JUST IN: Bitcoin is now 59.4% sustainably powered 🥇Higher than any reported global industry ⬆️Up 7.0% since last Cambridge survey 14 months ago 🌊Largest power source: hydro Source: Cambridge 2026 image
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dsbatten 2 weeks ago
The "waste of energy" argument doesn't survive a cold one. image
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dsbatten 2 weeks ago
"El Salvador is Bitcoin country" was largely a very good marketing pitch "The nation states are coming" was hopium. "6 of the largest energy companies in Brazil are now actively evaluating Bitcoin to monetize their stranded energy" is real You are looking in the wrong place for evidence of Bitcoin adoption. Energy is the stealth-bomber in Bitcoin's adoption story. image
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dsbatten 2 weeks ago
Mainstream media has a negative:positive news reporting ratio of 9.1: 1 Source: https://www.nber.org/system/files/working_papers/w28110/w28110.pdf But when the subject is Bitcoin mining, the negativity ratio is order of magnitude higher. This, in one image, is why many people still believe Bitcoin mining has a negative environmental impact, even though the data, 30 peer reviewed papers, Cambridge's current reporting and 100s of real life case studies say the opposite. image
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dsbatten 2 weeks ago
It is my duty to remind you that Bitcoin will use all the world's power by 2020. image
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dsbatten 2 weeks ago
I’ve been investing into technology companies since 2004, and working in tech startups since I was an early employee at a startup who was first to use the Internet for utility billing in 1996. The 3 technologies with the most use-cases and the most potential value to humanity I’ve seen in that time are The Internet, Bitcoin and AI … with plenty of air until the next grouping. The difference is that with Bitcoin, the ratio of positive to negative uses of the technology is much higher - inherently it is order of magnitude harder to use Bitcoin for crime than traditionally currencies, but the social and environmental usecases for the technologies are significant, supported by many peer reviewed studies, and growing each year. That, combined with the fact Bitcoin, unlike any technology I've seen, is benefitting the Global South at scale before it is benefitting the West, make it the most promising technology for social and environmental justice I've seen in a generation.
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dsbatten 2 weeks ago
I'm seriously geeking out on this image right now. You can now use AI to help transform the 2nd-most recognizable part of you: your voice. OK, some context. Years ago I wrote a book on pitching. But it is really a book about any sort of situation where you seek to influence someone (like helping Bitcoin adoption through orangepilling). I use the principles myself when changing people's minds about the Bitcoin and energy, and I also teach it to clients, who have a 91.1% success rate with their investment pitches (Industry average is apparently 10.4%, so seems like it works). The book is a manual for improving all elements of influence: message, deliver, tactics and mindset. Unless all are strong, influence is unlikely to occur. I was lucky enough to have spent a lot of my 20s doing acting for stage and TV, so I learnt how to improve delivery during those years and teach it to others. But I've never had a tool to objectively show people that their delivery has improved. Now I do. This is just a snippet of a more extensive analysis that also gets quite technical with difference aspects of voice resonance. This client was someone I'd worked with previously to win his seed investment, but he came to me because when approaching seed-SeriesA he was getting feedback that his delivery was flat from his own team, and he agreed. They were right! So we did a solid 2 months of voicework, and the harsh objective lens of AI is now saying his monotone is not only gone, but he's now speaking in the dynamic range. Voicework has always tended to be something that felt subjective, but now thanks to AI it is appealing to analytical people who like the data too We are only just beginning to tap the potential for AI for self-improvement. image
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dsbatten 2 weeks ago
This analysis is not something I did after the fact to justify how good bitcoin mining is for the enviroment, this is the analysis I did after running 2 climatetech funds and asking "what type of technology can we invest in that will maximize emissions reduced per dollar" The answer: Bitcoin mining projects using the stranded vented methane coming out of half the world's landfills. image
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dsbatten 2 weeks ago
In July, Brazil stopped evaluating Bitcoin mining and started switching it on. On July 1, Adecoagro (the Tether-backed agribusiness) began commercial mining in Mato Grosso do Sul: 10 MW, 1,280 machines, powered by surplus energy from its own sugarcane mill (source: At Renova's Alto Sertao III wind complex in Bahia, 42 MW of mining is already running: the share of their wind power the grid cut fell from 65% in January to 17% in March (source: https://diariodonordeste.verdesmares.com.br/opiniao/colunistas/mariana-lemos/usina-da-casa-dos-ventos-no-nordeste-recebera-data-center-de-mineracao-de-bitcoins-1.3749091) Casa dos Ventos, one of Brazil's biggest wind producers, is commissioning a mine at a wind plant right now, expected to cut its curtailment losses by up to 50%. (source: https://diariodonordeste.verdesmares.com.br/opiniao/colunistas/mariana-lemos/usina-da-casa-dos-ventos-no-nordeste-recebera-data-center-de-mineracao-de-bitcoins-1.3749091) 3 companies, 2 different fuels, and the same underlying principle: Bitcoin mining is the buyer of stranded energy nobody else can take. Energy is the adoption story.
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dsbatten 2 weeks ago
Texas has begun replacing its most flexible load with its most inflexible one. Hmmm. image
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dsbatten 2 weeks ago
Bitcoin payments are not only the fastest to settle (instant) and the lowest fees, they are also the most enviromentally friendly. When you choose visa etc over Bitcoin/lightning, you are choosing a network that is slow, dirty and expensive over one that is instant, clean and fair. image
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dsbatten 2 weeks ago
Monarchies (like Bhutan and UAE) like Bitcoin so much? Ironically, because they are authocratic and centralized they can make decisions very fast that benefit their people, rather than their own chance of re-election.
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dsbatten 3 weeks ago
The obvious story the media reports on: "AI solves Bitcoin miners' revenue problem." The less obvious and more interesting story they're not reporting: "AI solves Bitcoin miners' exit problelm" More interesting because it opens up Bitcoin mining companies to something no investor has been keen on til now: equity investment. ... and that has all sorts of consequences not just for Bitcoin mining, but for Bitcoin itself.
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dsbatten 3 weeks ago
Contrary to what you read about Bitcoin mining, the sector has in my view never been such a good asymmetric bet to investors In fact, AI just made Bitcoin mining investible again. Exhibit A: our own financing company, CH4Capital, which specializes in Bitcoin mining projects on landfills, is considering equity positions in Bitcoin mining companies for the first time since 2022. This is the subject of my latest newsletter: Not investment advice
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dsbatten 3 weeks ago
One hemisphere is switching flexible load on. The other is leasing it away Brazil, July 1: Sugarcane mill starts mining Bitcoin on bagasse power (the 5th Brazilian energyco to do so) Georgia: CleanSpark signs 20-year, $6.6B AI lease AI is inflexible demand. Mining is flexible