BPUK Newsletter
May 2023
It was just six weeks ago when Bitcoin Policy UK (BPUK) officially launched. You can read our press release here.
BPUK aims to bring together the community, policymakers, environmentalists, businesses, energy producers and Bitcoiners to explore how we might utilise this groundbreaking technology to support UK households, businesses, and our communities in a sustainable and innovative way.
We’re doing this by breaking our work into three initiatives:
Policy
Mining and Sustainability
Next Gen
These committees focus on positioning Bitcoin at the forefront, providing information where needed, and being a representative for Bitcoin in the UK.
The leaders of the initiatives are Freddie New as the head of Policy, Susie Violet Ward as the head of Mining and Sustainability and Laura McConnell as the head of Next Gen.
What BPUK has been up to:
May was an eventful month for BPUK, from meetings with MPs to events in London and a conference in the USA.
Policy
One of the main initiatives BPUK set up was to get in touch with policymakers and educate them about the benefits Bitcoin will bring to the UK - whether in economic terms with new businesses or in environmental terms with green solutions to stabilise and support the energy grid.
These ideas and initiatives are something many at Westminster should be supportive of. Unfortunately, policymakers have been handed imperfect research material and therefore don’t connect Bitcoin to these solutions. In many of these documents, Bitcoin is only mentioned as the first cryptocurrency or an energy waster, thanks to Proof of Work and the mining process.
The BPUK team did reach out and provided updated information, which we know was reviewed in the recent Treasury Committee report (as a quote from the submission appeared in the report). However, this experience showed that Westminster still lacks knowledge of Bitcoin’s fundamentals, and even when presented with evidence, we face quite a battle to have this read and understood.
This is why BPUK sent a two-part response to the future financial services regulatory regime for crypto assets paper - you can read both part one and part two on our blog - and the call to action for the digital pound consultation with an urgent deadline on the 7th of June.
These responses are not enough, which is why BPUK has reached out to MPs and be a helping hand in meetings and discussions. This request was met with a positive response, and some of the BPUK team have managed to schedule meetings with policymakers.
The main focus in these discussions was to establish Bitcoin as a net positive for the environment, and that green innovation is already happening on Bitcoin. We will continue to push for further meetings and discussions.
Additionally, BPUK is also working hard on engaging in the CBDC discussion and providing a Bitcoin perspective. We did this with our detailed response to the Bank of England’s digital pound project. They set up a dedicated section on their website earlier this year and have since asked for feedback from the general public.
We encourage everyone to respond and send in their suggestions by June 7th. We’ve written a blog post about this topic in which we explain how you can help out as well.
You can also help us by contributing to our fundraiser on Geyser, where we aim to orange pill parliament and send everyone a copy of the Bitcoin Standard. We’re in discussions internally as to whether to tailor the books we send to the political leanings of relevant MPs - watch our Twitter for any amendments to our proposals.
Mining and Sustainability
Bitcoin mining is still portrayed as an energy waste mostly because we read about it in the mainstream media. Most of these articles forget that miners are not just plugging their ASICs into a socket and mine Bitcoin immediately. If they did, they would lose money, and the operation would eventually have to shut down.
Instead, miners look for the cheapest energy source. This is where sustainability comes into play, as the cheapest sources often are renewable energy sources. These can be hydro, wind, or solar, just to name a few. Where things get really interesting is when we look at energy sources that would otherwise be wasted, such as methane, and use them to power ASICs (“application-specific integrated circuit” otherwise known as a Bitcoin miner).
In case you didn’t know, methane, which is released during the process of drilling for oil, is a greenhouse gas (GHG) 80x more potent than CO2. It is usually flared at source to prevent it reaching the atmosphere, but this process itself causes pollution. The PwC State of Climate Tech Report 2021 stated that only a handful of environmentally friendly institutions focused on reducing the burning of such devastating gases. Bitcoin miners are the key solution to this problem as they can capture the methane at source and utilise it as free/cheap energy with which to mine Bitcoin, providing an economic incentive to protect the environment. Daniel Batten has written extensively about this and is a great resource for all things climate and Bitcoin related.
BPUK has a live Geyser fundraiser to purchase ASICs which will be used to setup a demonstration site. This will provide a Bitcoin mining showcase for environmentalists, businesses and policymakers to educate and inform them on the benefits of this technology.
Our Head of Mining and Sustainability is actively working to source a site for the miners, as well as organising their purchase and shipment. If you can support this initiative in any way we would love to hear from you.
Next Gen
We’re excited to welcome Laura McConnell as the Head of Next Gen. She and her team will focus on the creation and support of a UK Bitcoin talent pipeline. Laura is already sourcing talent requirements from UK businesses and exploring educational options with UK schools and universities. If you are a Bitcoin company looking for talent, or a UK based academic institution who would like to explore Bitcoin training options for your students we would love to hear from you.
BPUK articles and responses to consultation requests by HMT and the UK Government
Future financial services regulatory regime for crypto assets
Rebuttal to an article in the Guardian about Bitcoin’s environmental impact: https://www.bitcoinpolicy.uk/post/bpuk-response-to-the-recent-guardian-article-on-bitcoin-mining-s-environmental-impact
Rebuttal to an article in the Financial Times about Bitcoin’s role in criminal activities online: https://www.bitcoinpolicy.uk/post/criminals-are-shunning-bitcoin-not-adopting-it
The Call to Action to the Digital Pound Consultation: https://www.bitcoinpolicy.uk/post/call-to-action-digital-pound-consultation
Our detailed response and policy paper for the Bank of England and Treasury’s CBDC proposals:
https://www.bitcoinpolicy.uk/post/bpuk-response-the-digital-pound-a-new-form-of-money-for-households-and-businesses
Media Appearances and Events Attended
Since launch our team has appeared on podcasts, attended events, and has been invited to speak at upcoming conferences.
The Bitcoin Collective
The team attended last night’s Bitcoin Collective event in London. Thank you to Jordan Walker and his team for hosting this!
Bitcoin Miami
Several members of the team attended the Bitcoin Conference in Miami and met up with Gridless, Cleanspark, The Texas Blockchain Council and other Bitcoin organisations.
What Bitcoin Did - Live event in Bedford
The team was present at the live event held recently in Bedford and spoke to many of you there.
Our Head of Policy, Freddie New appeared on the What Bitcoin Did Podcast:
Our Head of Mining and Sustainability, Susie Violet Ward has been busy this month with the following:
An appearance on the CowShed Podcast:
Attended Bitcoin Miami 2023 and wrote about it: https://www.cityam.com/a-rollercoaster-ride-of-experiences-at-the-bitcoin-conference-in-miami-where-a-little-corner-of-bedford-offered-hope/
Attended a talk about CBDCs and Fintech in London and wrote about it: https://www.cityam.com/are-we-genuinely-staying-ahead-of-the-curve-in-fintech-by-blatantly-ignoring-bitcoin/
Met with Dennis Porter, Head of the Satoshi Action Fund, to talk about Bitcoin Mining in the UK
Attended an event at the University of London to talk about CBDCs
Spoke to the Energy APPG in late April and represented Bitcoin Policy UK’s work there
Along with these panels, Susie also attended the London Bitcoin and Suffolk Jungle Bitcoin MeetUps
Coming Up…
Here is what we will be up to over the coming weeks:
Podcast
BPUK will soon be launching a podcast where we’ll keep you updated on all our focus areas each month. Watch out for a release date soon!
Events
The team will be attending Bitcoin Adventure Weekend in Avon Valley, BTC Prague, events in Germany with TeraHash and upcoming London and Suffolk MeetUps.
If you have any questions or suggestions or would like to support our work:
Email us: contact@bitcoinpolicy.uk
Contact us on our website: https://bitcoinpolicy.uk
Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/bitcoinpolicyuk
Great first newsletter, look forward to more updates and to contribute where I can. Mining in the uk could be game changing, but this needs combining with a lot of education.
Bravo for this initiative.