Each time I run a retreat with a client, I set myself one goal: improve at least one thing each time. This time it was the "make everything we do as memorable as possible" The leading device is simple, and research-backed. We anchor what we learn to where we learn it. Sit in one room the whole time and it blurs together. Move through different places, each with its own sounds, sights and smells, and every conversation gets its own anchor. So in Costa Rica where I live, we sat outside whenever we could, beside birdsong in different parts of San José. One session was at a local slow food restaurant serving some incredible local cuisine. Paid for in Bitcoin, of course (check out La Galería Slow Food and say "hi" to the owner Jorge next time you're in). Here are some of the places we sat in the montage below. The results: He just left me a voice note "I feel like a completely different person. and I still can't believe how much we covered in just 3 days." He sent out new proposals while we were there, and he says his clients are picking up on his new vibe. Not all of this was down to where we sat. Some was the breathwork he's now integrated, and plenty was other aspects of the co-work we did together. But this is my 40th retreat I've run, and if I can make every one 2% better, then this one is roughly121% better than my first. Next retreat is in a couple of months, and this time it is a group retreat. The last innovation is locked in, and I've just started brainstorming what the next innovation will be that can make it even better.

Low time preference is trainable. We talk about low time preference like it's something that the process of holding sound money does to us. Hold Bitcoin, and you defer gratification by default. ie: don't spend today what could be worth more tomorrow. This is true, holding Bitcoin does lower our time preference. It's also a skill you can build directly Turns out that part has been measured across hundreds of studies. The underlying skill is the ability to choose the larger reward later over the smaller one now. You train it with your own imagination. When people picture a specific future in vivid detail, they discount it less and wait for the bigger reward more often. Researchers call it "episodic future thinking". In randomized tests it measurably lowered how steeply people discounted the future. If you make your future concrete enough, you will value it enough to wait for it. One concrete example (of many): put friction between impulse and action, such as the "wait 10 minutes" rule before a purchase, snack, or reply to someone who just said something ignorant about Bitcoin on social media. You're not banning the thing. You are inserting a delay so the impulse passes and the deliberate choice gets a chance to take over. Over time, the pause becomes automatic. Low time preference is a muscle that can be trained.

Question: Bitcoin mining companies, especially in Europe, seem to be expanding fast to meet the demand from both the grid and AI datacenters for flexible load. When they do this, they often have short term financing needs (due to short lags between equipment purchases and deployments), which can be secured by slow-depreciating assets such as transformers and other electrical infrastructure (not fast-depreciating ASICS) Many seem prepared to do short term finance, paying up to 2% per month, so they can expand faster. I'm not personally familiar with this sort of fully secured short term loan financing, but keen to see if I can support the growth of Bitcoin mining on our grids. Any ideas who does this sort of thing?

When I was in Madrid for the MadBitcoin conference, i got talking to Michal Nydrle about how Bitcoin mining's potential to transform our grids He say he'd had his mind blown. Have had several comments like this since. Turns out, how Bitcoin mining transforms the way humans do energy is as much of a rabbit hole as how Bitcoin transforms the way humans do money.

Almost nobody is connecting Bitcoin mining profitability-squeeze to the rise of Bitcoin mining companies earning grid-revenue We are moving from the age of mining monoculture (Sats only) to mining permaculture (multiple revenue streams, multiple uses in parallel)

If you read news media about mining this week: you'll get the "20% of miners unprofitable", "below production cost for five months", "hashrate down 12%" - in other words, you'll get the un-nuanced, single-dimension, skewed-negative coverage that every one else gets. If you listen to people on the inside, you'll get the real story - Mining will never be unprofitable because there are multiple ancillary revenue sources - You can mine for an effective -2.67c/KWh if you're also providing grid stabilization through your ASICS - Bitcoin mining (where the miner has ancillary revenue) is an attractive asymmetric bet because never has it been so clear it solves so many of the world's energy problems in parallel. The world's utilities and grid operators are now a hair's breadth away from realizing this. Not investment advice.

This year you'll see me do a lot more of this: jumping on non-Bitcoin podcasts to educate people about the value of Bitcoin and Bitcoin mining Contrary to what you might thing: most people are curious and highly receptive. This pod was with people in the energy sector who said to me afterwards it was one of the most mindblowing podcasts they'd had. Listen on Wired For Energy website:

Wired for Energy

Bitcoin: Climate Villain Or Solution with Daniel Batten

Daniel Batten, climate tech investor, ESG analyst, and co-founder of CH4 Capital, challenges the widespread perception that Bitcoin mining is an en...

Spotify:

Spotify

Bitcoin: Climate Villain Or Solution with Daniel Batten

Wired for Energy · Episode

Apple:

Apple Podcasts

Bitcoin: Climate Villain Or Solution with Daniel Batten

Podcast Episode · Wired for Energy · June 18 · 47m

Just in: Oman just launched a (mandatory) National Bitcoin Mining Pool. Interesting paradox: It is also a State-Backed Push for Regulatory Control that will help decentralize mining pools, particularly if more governments do this. Context: Oman is in the middle of a $700M+ push into industrial-scale Bitcoin mining

If you're wondering who is gaining hashrate as US pubcos shed it, Bitdeer just quietly became the world's largest Bitcoin mining company by hashrate. 70 EH, representing ~7% of global hashrate.

Carbon fiber for spacecraft was an accidental secondary application from the textile industry GPUs had an accidental secondary application that changed the world for AI, originally from the gaming industry Bitcoin's accidental secondary application could also change the world faster than its original application.

Everyone in Bitcoin knows that Bitcoin solves a money problem A subset know that Bitcoin also solves an energy problem And yet ironically ... the energy problem is likely to be the one the world sees value in first, for a very simple reason

Bitcoin mining was gaslit for a long time (as we know all too well). As a result, grids using it won't tell anyone (overtly). But that doesn't mean they aren't using it A lot! They'll call it flexible load. They'll call it data centers, grid stabilization, demand response. Basically anything but Bitcoin mining while reaping the benefits that only Bitcoin mining offers a grid. I jumped on a pod with Nik Bhatia to talk about this recently

One tech founder I coached told me the story of his father (also a tech-founder) who arrived home from a work trip after a week. His mom said "your dad is back", to which he replied "Oh, has he been gone?" He vowed to be a more present father to his kids. When his company exited a few years ago and we shared a moment of celebrating, what we really celebrated was not the exit, but that he'd done it in a way that meant his daughters had experienced the different quality and level of fathering from him, than he'd had at times had from his own Dad.

You cannot build a low-time-preference life while rehearsing high time preference every hour.

Bitcoin is most owned where it solves very real problems. For example of the top 14, here's the problems it solves. UAE: Remittances. The world's highest-migrant-share workforce sends money home through banks that skim 6%+ a transfer. Bitcoin moves it for a fraction. Source:

Khaleej Times

More UAE residents remitting using Bitcoin, other cryptocurrency

One of the biggest challenges that may prevent adoption of stablecoin and bitcoin for remittances is the 'trust factor', according to an ...

Vietnam: Bank-account control. The state deactivated 86M+ bank accounts in a single AML sweep. I spoke to people this happened to who lost their savings. They had left Vietnam years before, and found the account that held their money simply closed. A bank that can freeze you for going quiet is the whole argument for holding your own keys. Source: https://vietnamnews.vn/economy/1721534/more-than-86-million-bank-accounts-to-be-terminated-from-september-1.html United States: Investment. Here the driver is portfolio allocation. Spot ETFs opened the door and institutions walked through, pulling roughly $14.8B into the funds in 2025. Source:

U.S. bitcoin ETFs see strongest inflows for over a month as BTC dominance hits 60%

Fidelity's FBTC recorded a top five inflow day as the ETFs took in a combined $457 million amid sharp BTC price swings.

Philippines: Remittances. Overseas workers wire billions home each year. Bitcoin rails undercut the high-fee operators they are otherwise forced to use. Source:

Tranglo

The state of digital currency and remittance in the Philippines - Tranglo

The Philippines is leading cryptocurrency adoption both regionally and globally, driven by its large unbanked population. The government is regulat...

Iran: Sanctions. Locked out of the dollar system, Iran mines its subsidised energy into Bitcoin and spends it on imports the banks can't touch. Source:

How Iran Uses Bitcoin Mining to Evade Sanctions

The US imposes an almost total economic embargo on Iran, including a ban on all Iranian imports and sanctions on Iranian financial institutions.

Brazil: Inflation hedge. Brazilians hold Bitcoin as hard money against a currency that keeps losing ground, and as a serious investment asset. Source: https://www.chainalysis.com/blog/2024-latin-america-crypto-adoption/ Saudi Arabia: Returns Most Saudis are under 30, digitally native, and chasing upside under Vision 2030. They are one of the fastest-growing Bitcoin markets in the region. Source:

Cryptopolitan

Saudi Arabia’s crypto market to hit $50 billion by 2034 as Vision 2030 drives rapid growth - Cryptopolitan

Saudi Arabia’s cryptocurrency market is estimated to hit nearly $50 billion USD by 2034. It was last valued at nearly $25 billion USD in 2025.

Singapore: Zero capital gains tax. Capital and wealth managers cluster where Bitcoin profits aren't taxed. Source:

Ainvest

Singapore Crypto Ownership Hits 16% Amid 0% Capital Gains Tax Attraction

Singapore Crypto Ownership Hits 16% Amid 0% Capital Gains Tax Attraction

Venezuela: Hyperinflation As the bolivar collapses, Venezuelans move savings into Bitcoin to hold value the state can't erase Source: https://www.ccn.com/education/crypto/venezuela-inflation-bitcoin-usdt-p2p-crypto-lifeline/ El Salvador: Conviction. The IMF stripped the legal-tender mandate in 2025, so nobody has to touch Bitcoin. Around one in ten Salvadorans still do, by choice. Source:

Global Finance Magazine

El Salvador Alters Bitcoin Policy

El Salvador Alters Bitcoin Policy | Global Finance Magazine

Ukraine: War. When ATMs capped withdrawals and savings froze, Bitcoin crossed borders money couldn't, and funded the defence. Source: https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/new-atlanticist/can-crypto-deliver-aid-amid-war-ukraine-holds-the-answer/ Argentina: Inflation. After decades of a falling peso, Argentines save in Bitcoin to protect what their melting-icecube currency keeps eroding. Source: https://www.chainalysis.com/blog/2024-latin-america-crypto-adoption/ Thailand: Investment Thais treat Bitcoin as a high-return asset class, and the state is courting crypto tourists. A spot Bitcoin ETF was approved in 2024. Source:

nationthailand

SEC and BOT launch crypto sandbox to boost tourism, allow foreign tourists to use digital assets in Thailand

The SEC and Bank of Thailand are launching a crypto sandbox allowing foreign tourists to exchange digital assets into Thai baht for spending, aimin...

South Africa: Hedging the rand. The rand has devalued 8x against the USD since 2000. A weak, volatile currency and a deep investor base push South Africans into Bitcoin as an alternative asset. Source: https://www.chainalysis.com/blog/subsaharan-africa-crypto-adoption-2024/ Notice the common theme? With the exception of US, Singapore, Thailand and Saudi Arabia, all the other countries are using Bitcoin to solve problems that affect basic livelihood in ways most of us struggle to imagine even being necessary in the West. There is a name for this: "Solipsistic". It means treating one's own experience as the only reality. But the more common term is "Tone-deaf". Those who continue to maintain Bitcoin "has no value" are actually saying (either wittingly, or unwitting "the lives of people who are not like me have no value". Increasingly "Bitcoin has no value" sounds like Marie Antoinette declaring "let them eat cake" - a wilful or careless plea from the elite who genuinely can't conceive of scarcity.

97% of the Bitcoin conversation is about money. Last week, I jumped on a podcast with Nik Bhatia to discuss how the use case the world understands first might be the one almost no one is discussing.

Little known truth: Bitcoin mining stabilizes the world's grids which are facing 2 destabilizing forces in parallel Probably nothing

Last month, I asked a Bitcoin miner operating in Sweden what his electricity actually costs him per kWh. The answer was a negative number. And most of his revenue isn't coming from mining at all. I shared the story with Nik a couple of days ago. Like Bitcoin itself, Bitcoin mining is super antifragile. Link to whole interview in comments

If you want to be a great leader, you have no alternative but to also be a coach. If you want to be an average leaders, becoming a coach is not necessary. Here's why.

The world doesn't need more thoughtleaders. The world needs more people who are an example of that which they are talking about