Despite the fact that bitcoin is almost 15-years old, we are still in the early stages of the network's build out phase. I've said it many times throughout the years, but I think it bears repeating - there is an order of operations to all of this. If bitcoin is to succeed and live up to the standards that I believe it is striving for this order of operations is important. I believe bitcoin is striving to be resistant against state attacks, sufficiently distributed at the node level, sufficiently distributed at the hashrate level geographically, easy to use in a non-custodial and privacy preserving fashion, and integrated throughout the financial system as pristine collateral that runs over a highly efficient layered settlement network with the possibility for unique custody arrangements across stakeholders via multisig.

With this in mind, I've tried to focus my efforts on aiding the front end of the order of operations I have identified to ensure that the probability of bitcoin's long-term success is as high as possible. This rag and the podcasts are ways for me to highlight what I deem to be the signal in the space. I've been heavily involved in them mining space since 2018 because it is an extremely important part of the bitcoin stack that is commonly misunderstood. And I joined Ten31 as a partner to help identify and support the companies in the space building the products and services that are working to strengthen the base of the network so that it can become the dominant monetary network of the 21st century.

Many, particularly those in crypto and on the sideline who liken cryptocurrencies to high beta tech plays as opposed to monetary goods and networks, will call bitcoin a protocol that doesn't innovate and is falling behind compared to others that prioritize speed of transactions and smart contracting capabilities. Nothing could be further from the truth. If bitcoin, or any of the affinity scams created in its wake, strive to be pillars of the global economy at some point this century it is imperative that the boring, un-sexy things that people don't find particularly interesting are taken care of. For if they are not, all of the cool sexy things will be all for naught because you'll be building them on a protocol that is trivially co-opted by those seeking control. Furthermore, I haven't been convinced that the "cool and sexy" things the people in the worlds of DeFi and digital assets are shilling are actually worthwhile in the long run.

Bitcoin is in its boring phase and that is okay. That doesn't mean that there aren't things that can get people excited and embed bitcoin into the fabric of our society slowly but surely. A great example of this is in the mining industry. On Friday morning I spoke on a panel about energy literacy at the Bitcoin 2023 conference and had an epiphany while on stage.

It is very ironic that politicians and central bankers refer to bitcoin mining as wasteful.

I understand this irony very deeply because of the work we're doing at Standard Bitcoin. Our strategy is to identify rural towns with falling populations that have excess capacity at substations because a large manufacturing facility left town due to globalization.

At Standard Bitcoin we are taking advantage of the waste created at substations across Appalachia. There is a lot of waste because the dollar system made it unprofitable to manufacture goods in the US.

Substations were built for heavy industry, heavy industry was eventually disincentivized due to monetary and economic policy, they were priced out and forced to leave or shut down, and substations were left behind with massive amounts of electricity capacity and declining demand.

Bitcoin mining has produced a profitable way to take care of the waste created by the dollar system and its perverse incentives that have led to a hallowing out of our manufacturing base here in the US. This is a beautiful thing and a saving grace for the Rust Belt.

It is truly ironic that those in government and central banking call bitcoin miners wasteful when we are fixing a waste problem that their policies created.

Our ability to solve this waste problem has very positive effects on the towns we operate in too. We create jobs while allowing utilities to keep prices lower for residential consumers because we provide them with a significant revenue boost. We're driving peak efficiency. We don't waste a single watt.

The gaslighting over this topic is pretty insane. And, more importantly, when people take the time to actually sit down and wrap their head around this problem it becomes undeniable. It becomes a desirable solution. Luckily for us, the people who understand this the most intuitively and rather quickly are the utilities companies themselves. It may seem boring, but this is how you win over minds and make bitcoin something that is much harder for the government to attack. It becomes politically untenable.

Final thought...

Is seven bedtime books too many?