There are now 30 papers showing environmental and energy benefits to Bitcoin mining across multiple jurisdictions and multiple research categories. Probably nothing

New paper shows renewable operations using Bitcoin mining are both more profitable and lower-emission than renewable operations where Bitcoin mining is absent The authors found that not only did Bitcoin mining have the potential to be a driver for large-scale renewable deployment in regions with abundant solar and wind resources, but also in hybrid systems (eg: solar + wind + diesel generation), Bitcoin mining reduced fossil fuel dependence while enabling a significantly higher renewable energy share The paper is titled: Maximizing ROI in Cryptocurrency Mining Through Energy Optimization (Nasrinasrabadi et al. 2025) Published in Energies, which has an Impact Factor of 3.2 (top 20% of journals) Source: https://mdpi.com/1996-1073/18/22/5910

A window into the future of Bitcoin mining: Flexionics uses 14 MW of ASICS to help stabilize the grid of Sweden They were called on 11,245 times last year. Yes, you read that right. Already, 58% of their revenue comes from grid services (the rest through hashing)

Another inspiring Bitcoin story Buena Vista, Colorado is becoming a new Bitcoin hub * already 19 businesses onboarded already (more than Colorado Spings) * Chamber of Commerce actively promoting it * Feedback from businesses (who were not bitcoiners) includes: "Our instore sales have increased, and 20% of our sales are now in Bitcoin" "it feels cleaner" "it feels more natural" "1 in 8 of our sales are now in Bitcoin" How did this happen? One person who in his spare time doing something we can all do - talking to people with a mindset of service. Luke Cortese is the honeybadger who has been behind this incredible story. But it gets better Each month he runs a "treasure hunt" where new members of the community learn about Bitcoin. 25 new people started using Bitcoin on the last one. AND He's open sourcing the model so other small towns across the country can start onboarding new businesses. He's already gotten enquiries from neighboring towns, and states.

New Study shows Bitcoin mining supports local renewable projects with heat recapture as an additional benefit The study found Bitcoin mining supported UNFCCC Article 6 sustainable-development benefits, including improving *local livelihoods *food security *energy access The paper documented micro-hydropower + solar coupled with flexible Bitcoin mining and heat recovery for a greenhouse and was published in "Sustainability" which has an impact factor of 3.3 (top 20% of journals) Source: https://mdpi.com/2071-1050/17/21/9488

Large levels of flexible load is a non-negotiable requirement for tomorrow's grids Bitcoin mining is best in class across 3 of the 4 dimensions of flexible load that matter most Probably nothing

One year ago Paulo Gonçalves was not a Bitcoiner. He's was (and is) renewable energy project developer who has spent his career building small hydroelectric dams across the world. His problem was simple: many of these dams produce power that the grid can't absorb. The energy is wasted. The economics don't work. He'd seen the problem firsthand and had been searching for a solution for over a decade. A year ago, he attended a FREEMadeiraOrg event in Portugal, where he discovered Bitcoin mining. That day changed everything. Unlike others who fall into the mistake of evaluating Bitcoin mining without understanding energy, grids or renewable generation - he understood all three intimately, and as such was able to immediately see the value that others (including policymakers and regulators) sometimes miss. Paulo is now evaluating 100s of small hydropowered sites throughout Portugal that are ideal candidates for Bitcoin miners. There are sites that are "too small" or too remote to be of interest to anyone else. The miners consume what would otherwise be stranded energy. No subsidy required. The dam that didn't make financial sense now does. This is the pattern critics miss. They assume Bitcoin miners are Bitcoiners first, working backwards to justify energy use. In reality in the energy sector it happens the other way around. Kenji Tateiwa in Japan. Paulo Gonçalves in Portugal, Bipin Patel in Sweden are real people solving real energy problems. Different countries, different energy sources, same discovery pattern: When you know a lot about energy, and do deep research into how to solve energy problems, you arrive at Bitcoin mining.

Nostr-only post follows. One thing I've been reflecting on this last week is that many of the people who changed the world worked deep hours, and remarkably few of them. I did some research and found 7 examples that might change how you think about your day, and the belief that grinding long hours is the best way to success Charles Darwin worked two 90-minute blocks each morning, then a single hour later in the day. Between sessions: naps and long walks On this schedule he wrote 19 books (including On the Origin of Species) 4 hours a day, and he changed biology forever Roald Dahl wrote from 10am-noon, then 4pm-6pm. 7 days a week. No exceptions He spent six months on a single short story. His words: "Writing is not inspiration. It's keeping your bottom on the seat" On 4 hours/day, he became one of the most beloved authors who ever lived Henri Poincare worked 10am-noon, then 5pm-7pm He solved problems mentally in breaks, then committed them to paper A psychologist who studied his routine in 1910, found working longer achieved nothing extra 4 hrs/day, and he reshaped Topology, planetary physics and chaos theory Literature Hemingway started at first light and stopped before noon. 500 to 1,000 words, standing up, pencil on paper He famously stopped mid-sentence so he'd have momentum the next morning ~5 hours a day and a Nobel Prize in Literature Novelist Anthony Trollope paid a servant to wake him at 5:30am. He wrote from 5am to 8am with a watch in front of him - 250 words every 15 minutes. Then he went to his day job (at the Post Office) 3 hours a day, 47 novels over 35 years - all before breakfast ! Tchaikovsky composed at his desk for about 4.5 hours split across morning and evening But he also took a daily two-hour walk, timed to the minute, composing in his head as he walked In ~4.5 hours at the desk he captured what the walk created The rest was letting the mind work · "But what about Musk, he works 80-100 hr weeks?" Look closer He schedules his day in 5-minute blocks 90% of his time is meetings and design reviews. That's executive coordination (and he's brilliant at it) - a different kind of work from the deep creation these others did "But what about Picasso, Balzac and others who worked big hours?" Picasso painted for long stretches. But he alternated intense work with long social meals and downtime within the day Balzac wrote 16 hours a day fuelled by industrial quantities of coffee (he also died at 51) I've seen this firsthand. One founder I coached was working 80-hour weeks, on the point of burnout. I shared 4 productivity strategies, got him to cut back to 50-hr weeks and go home to his family NPS scores, Q12 ratings, RPU all improved. The company exited 2 years later The pattern across all of these: short duration, consistent deep focus, real rest between sessions They protected the hours, protected the recovery, and they didn't confuse hours with output The lesson: Perhaps working more isn't the secret? Perhaps working deeper is?

Training impulse control (via meditation, coaching, habit cultivation etc.) is one of the most direct ways to lower your effective time preference

There has never been an industry whose success has been determined by so few variables as Bitcoin mining Hashrate Bitcoin Price Electricity Price ASICS Price Block reward (and fees) Ancillary revenue That's it 6 factors Not in-store-spend Not Customer conversion rates Not market penetration Not demographic data And no sales and marketing campaign or customer outreach campaign will change this You're at the mercy of 6 variables, 4 of which you have no control over, save a small bit of wiggle-room that you can create by negotiation in the case of ASICS price. The only variables you can control is electricity price and ancillary revenue source. (More about this later) For this reason, we can do something we've never been able to do for any industry ever We can read the future non-speculatively, because it already exists today In Europe, electricity prices are astronomically high. So much so, that it effectively simulates a future reality where the economics are similar to a US-based mining company one halving into the future (with half the block reward). Yet, Bitcoin mining thrives in Europe: the most hostile electricity-price environment, regulatory, environment and tax environment in the world towards Bitcoin mining. You'd never know it, because it happens mostly under the radar, and it is (legitimately) called "datacenters", "grid stabilization services", and "heat reuse" to avoid regulatory hostility and taxation hostility. Bitcoin mining thrives here because of one factor alone: their ancillary revenue is very high compared to the rest of the world. So high in fact that many European mining companies are more profitable than their US counterparts This is why I have no fear about the future of Bitcoin mining This is why discussions about security budget are redundant: Bitcoin doesn't need one This is why we don't need to have speculative discussions about the direction of Bitcoin mining. Europe already ran that simulation, and the data is in. The future of Bitcoin mining is that it seeks out stranded energy at near zero marginal cost. The future of Bitcoin mining is that it stabilizes grids and recycles heat as a primary revenue source, with the blockreward and fees being the by-product The future of Bitcoin mining is that it solves hard problems the world desparately needs - keeping our grid safe and stable, making AI load flexible, reducing harmful methane pollution, stopping the wasteful practice of renewable energy curtailment in ways that benefit whole communities The future of Bitcoin mining is that it is the usecase of Bitcoin that the world sees and embraces first.

AI power demand is in mainstream news right now. The IEA has published on grid stress. Data centres are in an arms race for power. European energy prices are major news. Grid instability is real and being increasingly commented on around the world. Renewable energy subsidies are ending. This is the perfect storm into which Bitcoin mining has just entered the fray.

Bitcoin solves a monetary problem and ... and energy problem Blackouts are visible Inflation is arguable Bitcoin is a solution to both But the world will understand how it solves the energy problem first

To date, the area of Bitcoin and energy has been a niche With AI power demands, European blackouts, stalled energy transitions, global grid stress, and 12 months of accumulating evidence, the world is now walking inexorably toward that niche

Reading a lot at the moment about people who are using AI to 1. stealman both sides of an idea 2. witness a debate from the perspective of a physicist, historian etc 3. Generate agents, including a first principles thinker, a contrarian, etc to exchange views on a topic ... This is a great way to create the illusion that you have arrived at truth. But it is not and will never be a proxy for thinking. If you want evidence of this, just ask the question "Is Bitcoin mining good or bad for the environment" and watch the method get the wrong answer every time.

Benefit #5 of meditation: It makes you non-reactive to volatility I cannot think of a Bitcoiner to whom this is not relevant and important! Neuroscience research comparing long-term meditators with non-meditators found that meditators displayed greater emotional stability and significantly less emotional volatility across all affect types. The mechanism: meditation trains what researchers call "equanimity" - the ability to observe an experience without reacting to it. MRI studies show that experienced meditators achieve a decoupling of sensory and affective processing. They still perceive the stimulus (a price pullback, some uninformed FUD, a new regulatory threat) but the emotional charge doesn't hijack the response. Source: PMC - Mindfulness, Cognition, and Long-Term Meditators

Mindfulness, cognition, and long-term meditators: Toward a science of advanced meditation - PMC

Mindfulness meditation is a systematic training in equanimity, sensory clarity, and concentration rooted in ancient contemplative traditions. Here,...

People often ask me how I had such patience, replying to the same FUD 1000x over - now I know the answer, nothing unique about me... but I’d been unknowingly training my mind over time through meditation to treat negative Bitcoin comments as datapoints, not reasons to lose my calm.

When a financial system fails, it can be disguised for years. When a grid fails, everyone knows Therefore the world encounters visceral, undeniable proof of Bitcoin's value through energy before it encounters it through money

Reason to meditate #4: It trains the low time preference muscle: delayed gratification As Bitcoiners, we often talk about low time preference as a virtue. But historically, we’ve implied that this is something you either have or do not have. The research says that a low time-preference disposition can be built, and meditation is how you build it. Basically, there are the two capacities that underpin the ability to delay gratification: attentional control and cognitive flexibility. Meditation has been shown to strengthen each of them. A study published in Consciousness and Cognition found that participants who completed mindfulness training showed significantly improved self-regulation and reduced impulsive responding. The mechanism is straightforward: delayed gratification is fundamentally an attention management problem. You don't resist the marshmallow by trying harder, you resist it by redirecting your attention. That's exactly what meditation trains you to do, thousands of times per session. Source: Consciousness and Cognition - Mindfulness Training Improves Self-Regulation

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Every Bitcoiner understands the marshmallow test instinctively. The person who waits gets two. The person who buys Bitcoin and doesn’t look at the price chart for four years has never historically been disappointed. Simply treating and reading about patience as a moral virtue is ineffective. Building the neural hardware that makes patience possible through meditation is.

At the start of this year I asked “what else could I do to help bitcoin adoption?” One of the answers was “Prioritize appearing on non-bitcoin podcats that reach new audiences” Just jumped in a podcast run by 2 Aussies in the energy sector. Looking forward to more of these.

Reason to meditation #3: It eliminates the sunk-cost bias This one should matter to any Bitcoiner who's ever held an altcoin too long. Andrew Hafenbrack at INSEAD ran four studies - one correlational, three experimental. These studies showed that meditation reduces the tendency to let unrecoverable past costs influence current decisions. Fifteen minutes of focused-breathing meditation was enough to shift participants away from sunk-cost thinking. The mechanism: meditation reduces focus on the past and future, which reduces the negative emotion that drives the bias. Source: Hafenbrack et al. - Debiasing the Mind Through Meditation (Psychological Science, 2014) https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0956797613503853 What this means is, meditation doesn't just help you HODL, it helps you make the decision to HODL or DCA based on what's in front of you now, rather than what you've already spent.

The world's leading energy authority just said this about demand flexibility and guess what the world's most flexible demand is? Bitcoin mining's time has come.