You're Not Bullish Enough On Bitcoin
What About The Civil Infrastructure Benefits of Bitcoin Mining?
It’s a fantastic asset that can be censorship resistant, free of seizure (with proper security practices) and a store of value that is beyond the manipulation of the distribution schedule — unlike the fiat currencies of the world.
However, you’re likely not bullish enough. Let me tell you why in a brief and concise message.
The 2021 ASCE report card for the quality and upkeep of the US’s infrastructure gave us a crippling “C-” grade. This is where Bitcoin steps in, but from the hardware side. Texas has been used ad nauseam talking about load balancing, however I suggest a new way of thinking about [Bitcoin + energy].
Bitcoin is providing energy producers and grids with a 24/7 demand for energy that is not only consistent, predictable, but also free of risk when it comes to the risks of human fault — because Bitcoin is not commanded by any CEO, or board of directors, or chairman. Meaning that the demand will be there. Always. No one individual or group can screw up and take that demand away.
This provides a MASSIVE boon to grid engineers on virtually every level from the local to the national. The difficulty with expanding energy generation is that demand has to be there first, but so does ample supply… and the demand can’t be allowed to grow too rapidly. To the tune of not providing enough energy to meet demand; having too little supply can obviously resort in blackouts, but the infrastructure also needs to be upgraded to be capable of supporting safely distributing power without damaging the physical infrastructure that supports the distribution.
This is where bitcoin’s survivability gets really cool.
Bitcoin mining operations and the “forever Laura” uptime of the network effectively provide a client for energy producers that doesn’t sleep, and doesn’t recognize holidays. Bitcoin is providing as much demand as these producers are willing to facilitate. This could open the door for not only catching up to very important infrastructure upgrades, but more importantly it could provide an option of implementing upgrades AHEAD of the demand; allowing power infrastructure to get ahead of civil development. This could provide a future where blackouts due to weak infrastructure or skewed supply/demand dynamics become a thing of the past (excluding the randomness of life like weather or failing at maintenance of facilities that result in damage to hardware and infrastructure).
This is something that I have spoken about, to near exhaustion, in Twitter Spaces. Imagine having a site where a nuclear power plant would work swimmingly, but there isn’t immediate capability to plug its generation operations into a local community for consumption. Bitcoin miners can be deployed to pay to consume the energy, at whatever consistent demand the power plant (or the miner) would like, meanwhile the infrastructure can be built-out to connect to local communities or businesses. Couple that with access to stable internet, and the people & community are allowed to expand around said site of operations.
Bitcoin isn’t just a financial and economic instrument.
Just something worth thinking about.