Within the newest episode of the SlateCast, hosts Liam “Akiba” Wright and Nate Whitehill welcomed Margot Paez, a pro-Bitcoin local weather change physicist and fellow on the Bitcoin Coverage Institute. The dialogue centered across the misconceptions surrounding Bitcoin’s vitality utilization and its potential function in addressing local weather change.

Bitcoin’s vitality utilization and local weather impression

Paez, a self-proclaimed local weather activist, initially had issues about Bitcoin’s mining course of and environmental impression. Nonetheless, after in depth analysis, she realized that the prevailing monetary system is the basis reason behind local weather change inaction, and Bitcoin may very well be a robust device to transition right into a extra sustainable financial mannequin. Paez stated:

“My thought was Bitcoin may very well be a very implausible device for us to get from the prevailing system that we’re in into a brand new system that may hopefully be higher than the prevailing one and that would really present a basis for a extra financial system that was higher in tune with the ecology and, cease the worst of local weather change from taking place.”

The financialization of the world

Paez criticized the present monetary system for its “virtualization of actuality,” the place digital markets and derivatives fail to mirror the bodily constraints of the planet’s finite assets. She identified that the incentives within the present system encourage short-term consumption and waste, perpetuating a cycle of useful resource depletion. Paez defined:

“Financialization is like virtualization of actuality, within the sense that you would be able to create all these digital markets and you may create all these, fancy devices and derivatives of them, however they don’t actually mirror the truth.”

Bitcoin’s potential as a sustainable answer

Paez believes that Bitcoin, with its shortage and cap, may function a scientific device to measure and align financial exercise with the planet’s restricted assets. She envisions a sustainable financial system that considers ecological constraints, one thing that the present system fails to do. Paez elaborated:

“I feel that cash has to mirror these restricted assets and must be in tune with them. And for me, I feel having a cash that’s scarce, that’s capped is one which we will use as a scientific device or a technological device for us to measure. What we’re really doing within the bodily world with our cash and our spending.”

The trail to a renewable Bitcoin community

When requested concerning the timeline for Bitcoin to succeed in 100% renewable vitality, Paez acknowledged the difficulty’s complexity. She emphasised that Bitcoin’s vitality combine displays world vitality use, and its transition to renewables is dependent upon elements such because the political panorama, the provision of renewable vitality sources, and the flexibility of miners to combine with vitality techniques.

“It actually is dependent upon numerous elements that aren’t all the time in command of, that we’re not in command of, that miners aren’t essentially in command of both,” Paez stated.

Margot Paez’s perspective challenges the narrative that Bitcoin’s vitality utilization harms the surroundings. As a substitute, she presents Bitcoin as a possible answer to the prevailing monetary system’s unsustainable practices and a catalyst for a extra ecologically acutely aware financial mannequin.

Whereas the trail to a renewable Bitcoin community is advanced, Paez’s insights supply a refreshing and thought-provoking viewpoint on the intersection of crypto and local weather change.

Watch the complete episode beneath…

NEW SLATECAST 🎙️ Bitcoin as an financial device to allow impactful environmental change

That includes @jyn_urso, local weather change physicist and fellow on the @btcpolicyorg

Hosted by @NateWhitehill and @akibablade pic.twitter.com/d1fKZ4Aszo

— CryptoSlate (@CryptoSlate) March 12, 2024