{"id":231,"date":"2019-04-05T17:32:43","date_gmt":"2019-04-05T14:32:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sirius-energy.com\/blog\/?p=231"},"modified":"2019-12-21T03:36:57","modified_gmt":"2019-12-21T01:36:57","slug":"why-bitcoin-may-be-the-greenest-technology-ever","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sirius-energy.com\/blog\/2019\/04\/05\/why-bitcoin-may-be-the-greenest-technology-ever\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Bitcoin May Be The Greenest Technology Ever"},"content":{"rendered":"

The benefit for the planet may be incalculable by switching to a sound money like Bitcoin from inflationary \u2018cheap\u2019 money that incentivizes waste, incessant growth, and profligate consumption.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

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New Technology Requires New Thinking<\/span><\/h2>\n

Today, most commentators attempt to define Bitcoin using analogies. They compare it to things they\u2019re familiar with like stocks, commodities, or a payment service like PayPal.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Just like the automobile was first described as a horseless carriage, Bitcoin today is presented largely as digital pseudo-money that\u2019s not backed by any government.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Similarly, Bitcoin mining has been heavily criticized in the mainstream media. Headlines like Bitcoin uses more energy than *insert country* <\/i>are not uncommon; and are regularly rehashed and republished.<\/p>\n

Such findings, however, have been debunked<\/span> time and time again. (Here\u2019s a great article explaining Bitcoin\u2019s energy use.) <\/span>Meanwhile, similar concerns<\/span> related to<\/span>\u00a0the banking system are deliberately ignored.<\/p>\n

But Bitcoin is not like the inflationary fiat money that drives the global economy today. It possesses the properties of sound money. Unlike the dollar, it is deflationary, non double-spendable and un-counterfeitable. This makes it a completely different animal and requires some new thinking to understand its potential.<\/p>\n

Inflation Incentivizes Profligate Consumption<\/span><\/h2>\n

Dollar hegemony, Keynesian thinking and inflation have now shaped economic policy for generations. Permanent Quantitative Easing (QE) and even negative interest rates are becoming the new normal. So it\u2019s not surprising that something like Bitcoin is incomprehensible to most people today.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Inflationary monetary policies force businesses into high time preference thinking. This means chasing quick quarterly profits, borrowing \u2018cheap\u2019 money, and doing whatever it takes to grow at all costs.<\/p>\n

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Today, most corporations hide behind a veneer of environmentalism to sell more products. Earth tone tote bags, less-plasticky plastic bottles, green logos, recycled materials etc. Anything to boost profit margins and ease over-consumption worries in the minds of the buyers. In result, if the product is \u2018eco-friendly\u2019 consumers feel less guilty about buying that new smartphone every year.<\/p>\n

Cheap Money Doesn\u2019t Care About the Future<\/span><\/h2>\n

The inflationary money phenomenon results in what is known as the Cantillon effect, where those closest to the money printers set the tone of economic activity.<\/p>\n

Big businesses benefit, in particular, as they get special access to the central bank\u2019s discount window. This \u2018cheap money\u2019 incentivizes borrowing and high time preference choices that tend to prioritize quantity over quality.<\/p>\n

This also has a big impact on the time preferences of the population too. High inflation, or the reduction of purchasing power of money, means individuals will also have a high time preference.<\/p>\n

This is especially evident in hyper-inflationary economies. People will rush to spend their money as soon possible knowing that it\u2019ll be worthless the next day.<\/p>\n

\"Starving<\/p>\n

Bitcoin investor, Jimmy Song, explains the difference between a low time preference versus a high time preference individual. He says:<\/p>\n

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A low time preference person is willing to forego things now for something better later.<\/p>\n

A bunch of high time preference people will not think very much about the future. Instead of saving for tomorrow, they\u2019ll spend now, consume and not be very productive. They won\u2019t be saving for tomorrow, starting businesses or building large scale projects as they all require a lot of planning.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Sound Money is Green Tech<\/span><\/h2>\n

So perhaps we should not be focusing on whether Bitcoin \u2018wastes\u2019 more or less electricity than today\u2019s financial system. Instead, we should be asking whether sound money would change how we value our time, labor and our environment, particularly for future generations.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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\u201c[Unrealized capital gains tax] and fiat money have a similar outcome. Distortion of time preference from investing in the future towards present consumption. Encouraging hedonistic activity and thus more environmental destruction, says Bitcoin Center NY co-founder, Austin E. Alexander.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Sound money is a green tech, encouraging expansion of temporal horizon. Encouraging investment in the technologies needed to make human activity more sustainable and efficient. The federal reserve is the most environmentally destructive institution on earth.<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

In other words, Bitcoin could curb the high time preference, growth-focused economic policies of today that incentivize profligate consumption, environmental harm and yes\u2026lots of wasted energy.<\/span><\/p>\n

This is why the consequences of a Bitcoin standard may be \u201cincalculable,\u201d says economist and author of The Bitcoin Standard,<\/em> Saifedean Ammous. He explains:<\/span><\/p>\n

The benefits incurred from [switching from the horse to the automobile] are incalculable for us, primarily by not having to deal with horse manure as a permanent fixture of life. In a very similar way, the benefits of bitcoin lie in the horrors it would allow us to avoid by taking money production out of the hands of the state\u2019s violent Keynesian barbarians.<\/p>\n

Bitcoin, on the other hand, provides a nuetral, sound money alternative. Its digital scarcity as a result of its 21 million cap and counterfeit-proof nature, makes it deflationary.<\/p>\n

Switching to a Bitcoin standard would certainly help lower individuals\u2019 time preferences and yes, may ultimately be very, very good for the environment.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The online publishers \u00a0assure Worldwide work opportunities for author<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The benefit for the planet may be incalculable by switching to a sound money like Bitcoin from inflationary \u2018cheap\u2019 money that incentivizes waste, incessant growth, and profligate consumption.\u00a0 New Technology Requires New Thinking Today, most commentators attempt to define Bitcoin using analogies. They compare it to things they\u2019re familiar with like stocks, commodities, or a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":232,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-231","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-clean-energy","8":"category-technology"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/sirius-energy.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/c.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pahFMi-3J","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sirius-energy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sirius-energy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sirius-energy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sirius-energy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sirius-energy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=231"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sirius-energy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":398,"href":"https:\/\/sirius-energy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231\/revisions\/398"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sirius-energy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/232"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sirius-energy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=231"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sirius-energy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=231"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sirius-energy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=231"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}