Environmental activist Margot Bayes describes her Bitcoin journey and how inclusivity is not just an “awakened ideology.”
As Bitcoiners, we often repeat the mantra “Bitcoin fixes this” and it really does solve many problems. The problem with this statement is not whether Bitcoin fixes things, but rather the question “for whom?” If we find ourselves in an echo chamber, we cherish the benefits of Bitcoin and what it can do for everyone.
Margot Bayes is an amazing environmental activist and outspoken bitcoiner. Baez has a master’s degree in physics and ethnomusicology and is currently finishing his PhD in civil engineering from Georgia Institute of Technology. She has proven herself to be one of the best players in Bitcoin due to her extensive research on the intersection of Bitcoin mining and energy use. She continues to give her time and resources generously They provide a complex framework for influencing bipartisan Bitcoin policy.
Paez offers a unique and unparalleled perspective on the Bitcoin space. In October 2022, Baez spoke on an appropriately titled panel, Can Bitcoin Help Save the Planet? At the British Bitcoin Conference in Scotland. Not only did she contribute amazing facts about bitcoin mining and the environment, but she did so in an eloquent and accessible way. It’s a passionate Bitcoiner in a society where different subcultures can, at times, hide important truths. Paez is doing a great job helping make Bitcoin for everyone.
I had the opportunity to discuss some of the hot topics, such as Bitcoin mining and energy consumption, whether Bitcoin is really as bad as many progressives believe and whether or not there is a male-dominated deviance in Bitcoin.
How did you first get to know Bitcoin and what exactly drew you to it?
I first learned about Bitcoin in early 2010. It was either a Slashdot post or when WikiLeaks decided to use Bitcoin after (Julian) Assange was shut down from the banking system. There were bitcoins at the “Audit The Fed” rally that took place in Occupy Los Angeles. I remember two things from this event. First, someone had a Bitcoin sticker on their property, which I photographed, and second, people were burning dollar bills, which I also photographed.
The Occupy movement brought people of different backgrounds together through their mutual hatred of banks. Sometime before 2014, I actually tried bitcoin mining, but I didn’t really get it and thought it was just another random open source project. I was interested in mesh devices and networking at the time and didn’t think there was more to money than some people who just don’t have enough of it.
This all changed in 2018 when I saw creators get let loose from the rules. Some of them were creators that I sympathized with and others were people I didn’t like at all. I quickly learned that in order to be able to accept payments online, you really only have two options: PayPal or Stripe. If you lose access to either of these two things, you could be completely shut out of the payment processing network. Once you’re on the bad list, you stay there for about five years, and those lists are run by credit card companies. In response, I’ve built a content creation platform that includes BTCPay Server. This forced me to understand how to send and receive money with Bitcoin, and that was really when I started to take Bitcoin seriously. It’s been a long journey, but part of it has been that I had no foundation in economics or monetary history to build upon from the start. I was just a naive computer geek who loved the freedom and openness of the Internet. For me, Bitcoin helps keep the internet free.
As an environmentalist, what is your perspective on how bitcoin, and specifically bitcoin mining, can impact the environment positively or negatively?
Bitcoin is a technology. Can do good things, can do bad things. What we decide to do with it is what determines its positive or negative effects on the planet and humanity. Some miners have chosen to grow very quickly without considering their environmental impact. Fortunately, the way PoW works is that it has a built-in mechanism for keeping that long-standing preference in check. So while we’ve seen miners make bad choices in the past, I think miners are starting to realize that they’re going to die if it grows too fast. As a result, there is hope that Bitcoin will have a positive impact on the environment. Our current monetary and economic system does not work that way. The current system only prioritizes the present over the future. It promotes rapid growth and maximizing profits at any cost. There is no mechanism to eliminate players who did not think long term or who took too many risks. More importantly, with Proof of Work, there is no bailout for miners who fail.
Due to the fact that bitcoin miners are having to find the cheapest electricity, feeling downward pressure due to the difficulty of modding and the near-perfect competition market dynamics for mining, they are being driven to waste. This turns out to be very beneficial to the environment because a lot of these energy sources are bio-methane like in landfills, livestock waste, etc. Anthropogenic methane is the second source of global warming, second only to carbon dioxide. If we are trying to prevent tipping points, logically we would want to try to buy some time and reduce the potential for warming in the short term. Bitcoin miners are very resilient and don’t know the location. They could capitalize on an early stage methane capture system that takes methane and converts it into electricity.
In a market economy, referring to solar and wind generators that have to compete with each other when they produce power, how will they continue to survive if the price of their product drops to zero or even negative in some markets? Bitcoin miners can help sustain these renewable energy generators as a secondary source of revenue that boosts the return on investment. Some companies are already trying to do this. The problem is educating the energy industry about bitcoin mining use cases and that takes time. The anti-Bitcoin political environment and scams related to cryptocurrencies such as FTX make potential partners wary of doing business with miners. This is unfortunate as this is a missed opportunity to achieve our decarbonization goals.
Electric grids that move from traditional thermal power generators such as coal and natural gas to renewable energy sources such as solar and wind need to be flexible on the demand side. Bitcoin miners are useful and can help stabilize the grid so that more wind and solar power can be brought online.
How do you usually respond to those who reject bitcoins? How would you present the Bitcoin case succinctly from a progressive standpoint?
I have had very little success with my circle of friends. They are all too orthodox in their beliefs about the economic system to believe that Bitcoin can be beneficial for them. In fact, I still hide all my Bitcoin stickers and copy my Bitcoin journal when a non-Bitcoin friend comes over. Maybe I’m being cowardly, but I don’t have many friends in real life, I just can’t afford to lose them because of Bitcoin. The best argument I can make is for people who are not emotionally involved with our economic problems and are willing to listen to a different opinion: Bitcoin has social value to anyone who has found themselves locked out of the banking system or has their bank deposits frozen and stolen from them. It has the ability to work with wasted energy, which means it can help us mitigate methane emissions and buy us time. If you don’t like what you see, you should at least know that, basically, Bitcoin has no ideology and anyone can participate. The more individuals who use bitcoin and care about climate change and the environment, the more likely it is that bitcoin will be beneficial to the climate and the planet in general. Bitcoin for anyone, Bitcoin for enemies.
Why do you think it is important to close the gender gap in Bitcoin interest and adoption?
I think when Bitcoiners show up saying, “Bitcoin is for everyone! It’s inclusive! It’s for people in the Global South!” And the people you’re trying to impress by seeing a room full of American and European white men, it raises questions about whether Bitcoin is right for anyone. Part of this is the messaging problem. Part of it is that finance and technology are, unfortunately, male-dominated spaces.
However, if Bitcoin is really anyone or anyone, we need to see more people representing Bitcoin who are women, people of color, who are LGBTQ+, disabled etc. I know some people are upset about this and think it’s some kind of “awakened ideology”, but it really isn’t. Bitcoin adoption will struggle if we don’t have the right ambassadors. They are just facts. Facts hurt fragile egos, sometimes, but that doesn’t make them any less true.
This is a guest post by Becca Bratcher. The opinions expressed are entirely their own and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of BTC Inc or Bitcoin Magazine.