Bitcoin environmental advocate, Daniel Batten, asserts that a "single comment" in 2018 from Alex de Vries, the founder of Digiconomist, is the root of "all the terrible studies on the environmental impact of Bitcoin" over the years.
"We have found the starting point," Batten said in a series of posts on X on December 12.
Although Batten did not specify which comments, he had previously criticized a report in May 2018 by de Vries titled "The Growing Energy Problem of Bitcoin."
Digiconomist is a platform "dedicated to exposing the unintended consequences of digital trends."
Batten indicated that data from litmaps shows that news reports related to energy and other academic comments about Bitcoin often refer back to this index, leading to "Bitcoin being misrepresented in mainstream media."
Daniel Batten's litmap traces the origin of FUD regarding Bitcoin's energy consumption to Alex de Vries. Source: Daniel Batten
"For many years, many people have been misinformed, and as a result, many investment committees, regulatory agencies, and policymakers remain unaware that 13 of the 15 recent articles support the environmental benefits of Bitcoin."
Digiconomist operates a "Bitcoin E-Waste Monitor" that indicates Bitcoin has generated 40.97 kilotons of electronic waste in the past 12 months, equivalent to 230.10 grams per transaction.
However, Batten, a venture capitalist focused on climate tech aimed at dispelling FUD about Bitcoin, believes the energy use per transaction metric is "fundamentally flawed."
"Bitcoin's energy use does not come from its transactions, so it can scale transaction volume exponentially without increasing emissions."
Batten stated that the method used by de Vries has been discredited in several academic journals published on ResearchGate, ScienceDirect, and Nature.
"That is why 96% of mainstream media outlets [...] are no longer misrepresenting the environmental impact of Bitcoin."
Many of these media outlets have begun reporting on the environmental benefits of Bitcoin, Batten said, pointing to outlets like Reuters, Yahoo Finance, Forbes, and Financial Times in a post on X on December 12.
Despite progress, Batten emphasized that much re-education work is still needed before mainstream adoption of "Bitcoin mining as part of climate action."
Bitcoin News has reached out to de Vries but has not received an immediate response.
According to the Bitcoin ESG Forecast, about 54.5% of Bitcoin mining comes from sustainable sources.
Mainstream media began to increasingly criticize Bitcoin's energy consumption when Digiconomist started reporting on Bitcoin in 2018.
For example, the Washington Post once called Bitcoin a "energy hog" — something that uses a large or greedy amount — which could harm the Earth's climate in an October 2018 report.
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