Daniel Batten

New focus in 2026 TL;DR: This year I'll be spending less time on FUD fighting, more time coaching other Bitcoiners. If history is anything to go by, this should mean more impact. Why? It's not a stepping down, but a stepping up to my true calling. Having done this once before in another ecosystem, I'm confident history will rhyme. 20 years and 11 days ago, my father passed away from cancer. Days later I was at his funeral as person after person recounted the impact that he'd had on their lives as a coach, and teacher. At the time I was running a Bioinformatics company I'd started - an excellent thing to do, BUT ... it wasn't MY calling. Some people’s calling is to carve a new path from their parents. Mine had always been to follow, as a coach and teacher. But I'd avoided that because Dad was so good at it, I feared living in his shadow. But at his funeral something changed: I saw my two futures: the initially comfortable but ultimately regret-filled future if I didn't pivot ... and the initially harder yet fulfilling one where I did. Within 9 months I'd told my board I would be leaving, and recruited my own replacement. I helped the company achieve escape velocity. But the incoming CEO guided it to the moon, setting the company up for its eventual exit. Today, history repeats. Last year, after three years of voluntary advocacy, I partnered with MARA on a special assignment, part of which involved intensively shifting the Bitcoin mining narrative by taking the truth directly to influential outsiders. This assignment is about to come to a successful end (see chart below). Their help meant I had the time to rebut over 102 articles, write 61 Letters to authors of those articles and meet with 162 Regulators & Policymakers to present Bitcoin's ESG merits. Many publications have now changed their editorial policy on Bitcoin mining to be nuanced and positive - something unthinkable just a couple of years prior. Thanks all who made this possible, including the hitherto unheralded player in this: @MARA I'd never intended to run my Bioinformatics company for more than a few years. I co-foundered it because I saw a chance to make a difference. And it did. Our software has been used to further our understanding of the evolution of each major new virus of the last 20 years. I share this next parts as a reassurance ... and a reminder. When we do what is our true calling, we tend to have the biggest impact. I was running a single company, but as a coach I was able to coach more than 60 founders of tech companies, particularly “deeptech” companies. I helped multiple ideas that were stuck in Universities turn into companies, and helped multiple companies attract capital and exit. One government entity wrote to me to say "[you have] helped us transform the research community [of New Zealand] at all levels." I also never intended to do Bitcoin Mining FUD fighting for more than a few years. In 2026 it's again time to follow my calling. I will be coaching more Bitcoin leaders, builders and educators. The work has started with some great Bitcoiners creating some great results for our ecosystem, including these: x.com/DSBatten/statu… If you are a builder or leader in Bitcoin and you're interested in just having a chat about what coaching looks like, reach out. If you want to do more effective Bitcoin FUD-fighting (in any area) - let me know. As part of paying it forward, I’ll run a 90-min seminar in 2 weeks that distills 3 years of changing the minds of skeptics. And if you want to do DIY FUD-fighting from a strong evidential basis: here are the latest, most up-to-date resources: 1. The nine most common Bitcoin mining myths debunked: x.com/DSBatten/statu… 2. The receipts for the 22 papers, 8 independent reports and 30+ media articles showing Bitcoin's environmental benefits. x.com/DSBatten/statu… 3. How Bitcoin mining keeps energy prices low x.com/DSBatten/statu… 4. Keynote: Bitcoin and the Death of Energy (The video people most often tell me changed their minds on the subject): x.com/DSBatten/statu… And above all else, when you hear the whisper of your calling: listen. This doesn't mean be reckless. Finish what you are doing, move from success to success - but listen. The degree of your trepidation you feel is generally proportional to the size of your victory on the other side. PS: I’ll still be posting inspiring stories (and data) on Bitcoin mining. I won't be doing daily seek-and-destroy on all Bitcoin mining FUD, and the constant behind-the-scenes letter-writing. I will coach those who pick up this work...and many other Bitcoiners doing great things for Bitcoin too I hope.

@Cointelegraph Who is running cointelegraph these days? Not content for breaking the well-known quality rules that got you kicked off Google's search engine, you're now posting alarmist misinformation If your strategic goal is "fade into irrelevance" you're tracking well

Why does Bitcoin get more enduring criticism than other disruptive technologies such as the Internet? Simple: Bitcoin is not only a technology, it is an asset. There was no financial penalty for being late to the Internet. You just used clunkier, slower tech for longer. But if you're late to Bitcoin, you don't only have mild inconvenience you have to reconcile financial cost too. We saw the same pattern with investors who missed the tech boom and in particular early Amazon doubters The tweet below is a textbook real-time illustration of this at play, showing three psychological principles at play at once 1. Cognitive Dissonance 2. Sour Grapes Effect (a dissonance-reduction tactic) 3. Omission Regret 1. Cognitive Dissonance When two cognitions conflict such as “I am a smart” and “I passed on an opportunity that turned out to be enormously successful”, psychological discomfort arises. To reduce it, people don’t change their original decision or admit error. Instead, they seek/emphasize information that justifies the original choice. (Leon Festinger, 1957) 2. Sour grapes effect (Sjåstad et al, 2020) Principle: People disparage goals they failed to attain (“the grapes are sour anyway”) to eliminate the pain of missing out In this context: “I didn’t buy Bitcoin, therefore it must be worthless/wasteful/destined to fail 3. Omission Regret Regret from not acting (omission) is often felt more intensely than regret from a bad action. People cope by rewriting the narrative: the missed asset “was never that good.” (Ritov & Baron, 1995) Gizmodo’s “How Much Should I Regret Not Buying Bitcoin?” (2018) even frames it exactly this way for non-investors Keen's admission of the missed £10 BTC price is immediately followed by a list of long-standing objections that conveniently justify the non-decision. Bitcoiners will call it “saltiness,” but the underlying psychology at play is standard, peer-reviewed behavioral science. Keen may defend himself by trying to argue "the tech really is genuinely bad". But in stating that "Bitcoin uses a lot of energy per transaction" (a piece of misinformation that anyone who has spent 1 hour researching Bitcoin mining will know is untrue: Bitcoin energy use does not come from its transactions) he has lost the right to claim objectively that his criticisms come out of understanding. Rather, he has illustrated a huge asymmetry in that he has spent countless hours making videos against Bitcoin, but almost no time understanding the technology. In his tweet thread, you can also see a classic red-flag that rather than engage on an issue, he will level one (widely debunked) claim after another. Brandolini's law in action: it takes longer to debunk BS than to create it. However, these are human frailties that can be overcome with higher self-awareness and lower ego. If the need to "be right" is reduced, then a person can become intellectually curious and re-appraise an asset. Indeed the ability to change one's mind is a defining aspect of real intelligence. Michael Saylor illustrated the possibility of this path.

@ProfSteveKeen This is really all the evidence we need that rather than an embark on an intellectually curious discussion on bitcoin, you've pre-decided it's bad (a documented psychological pattern in those who had the chance to invest early but didn't) and now look for evidence "I was right"

I could have bought Bitcoin for less than £10 per coin. I said no. And here is the 3-part case that is now playing out in real time. Bitcoin wastes energy by design. Every transaction requires 10 minutes of computing power to be deliberately burned across the network. The total energy consumption has already passed Switzerland. War is threatening 20 to 30% of global energy supply. 2 of Qatar's 14 LNG processing trains have been destroyed. Each takes 5 years to rebuild. Oil has no real substitute. When physical supply falls, output falls. The store of value argument destroys Bitcoin as a currency. When people expect the price to rise, they do not spend it. It stops being money and becomes a speculation. When energy rationing arrives, and governments are already moving in that direction, Bitcoin mining will not survive that conversation. Live proof: Trade in the Strait of Hormuz is moving to Chinese yuan. Not to Bitcoin. One fiat replacing another. The full breakdown is in my latest video going live now. youtu.be/EJicZxhhzgc?si… #Bitcoin #Cryptocurrency #EnergyEconomics #GlobalEconomy #PostKeynesian #FinancialCrisis #MacroEconomics #BitcoinMining #EnergyPolicy #EconomicTheory

@ProfSteveKeen Please stop embarassing yourself publicly Steve This is a hobby blog, not academic research. The author (Alex de Vries) had his Bitcoin work debunked in peer reviewed study 4 times (in full by Sai and Vranken in 2023). He's not had his Bitcoin work reported in the media since

@DSBatten digiconomist.net/bitcoin-energy…

Throwback time in the "Don't-understand-Bitcoin-but that-wont-stop-me-opining-about-it" genre Apparently "Bitcoin uses a lot of energy per transaction" 🤣

Wow, "waste by design?" What a throwback. Did you wake up this yesterday morning and think it was 2021? Steve, in case you didn't notice, the media has largely stopped reporting on this misinformation source: x.com/DSBatten/statu… Why? Largely because of 24 peer review journals show Bitcoin has positive environmental externalities, which is in agreement with what grid operators, battery engineers, solar and wind generators, and methane mitigation specialists have also observed. source: x.com/DSBatten/statu… In the meantime, Bitcoin now uses 52.4% sustainable energy. source: Cambridge, 2025. The idea that Bitcoin uses "energy per transaction" is a very old piece of misinformation that has been debunked in 4 peer reviewed studies (Masanet et al,  2019, Dittmar et al. 2019, Sedlmeir et al, 2020, and Sai and Vraken, 2023.) The fact you were unaware of this shows you lack a basic understanding of Bitcoin, but that hasn't stopped you opining about it. Far from wasting energy, Bitcoin mining has been found in multiple studies (see below) to be a user of otherwise wasted energy that is accelerating the renewable energy transition and counterbalancing renewable intermittency. You can bring yourself up to date here, next time you feel the impulse to simultaneously embarrass yourself publicly while misinforming people. x.com/compose/articl…

4 years ago today to the day, I wrote a tweet that changed everything for me. Greenpeace had just launched their "Change the Code". I'll be honest, I was furious. For a simple reason. I just happened to have been independently researching Bitcoin's environmental impact for 2 months, so I knew exactly where they were factually incorrect, and why. My first instinct was to fire back immediately. I had the data. I had the arguments. I was ready. Instead I sat down and breathed (I use a practice called SKY breathing). 20 minutes later I went back to the computer and wrote a very different response than the one I would have written in the heat of it. Calm. Precise. Led with evidence. Backed up by sources. Not dismissible as maxi vitriol. This was to set the tone for all subsequent engagements. The anger had transmuted into passion. But it was counterbalanced by dispassion, and that made all the difference. I never expected a single retweet. Virtually none of my tweets over the last 5 years had gotten any! But that one tweet got over 600k views and changed everything for me. More importantly, it set the direction for 4 years of research that helped shift the entire narrative on Bitcoin and energy. I've thought about this a lot since. The data mattered. The timing mattered. But what mattered most was the 20 minutes I almost didn't take. It’s the response that flies through space carries the energy it was launched with. x.com/DSBatten/statu…

Stop what? Stop presenting facts and data and drawing evidence-based conclusions and start telling people what to do and disagreeing without offering any data? No thanks. But if you had a specific point you think is factually incorrect or not valid inference, let's hear your counter-argument.

@DSBatten Stop this stealth advocacy of electricity for bitcoin miners…where ve you been 2 yrs ago you never heard about Ethiopia. Let me tell you Djibouti is getting it, Kenya is getting it, south Sudan is getting electricity from Ethiopia. Are u saying rural Ethiopia is not reachable?

We now have official EEP data that shows Bitcoin mining has nearly doubled Ethiopia’s annual net transmission grid expansion rate Even more importantly, it has catalyzed an unprecedented level of new construction activity never before reported by EEP at this scale. Consider this context: Delivery of power to rural Africa, alongside combatting youth unemployment is one of the two biggest political changes in sub-Saharan Africa. Bitcoin mining has just demonstrated it can be a viable solution for one of them Let's dig in. Ethiopia made $220 million from Bitcoin mining in 2024/25 which is expecting to increase to $312 million this year (source: capitalethiopia.com/2025/11/02/eep… This electricity would otherwise have been wasted Why? Although Ethiopia has the capacity to generate 6 Gigawatts from the new dam, Ethiopian Electric Power (EEP) hasn't yet built the transmission lines to supply all that electricity generated. So, in the meantime the dam authorities sell electricity to Bitcoin mining companies. These electricity sales to Bitcoin miners were 67% of EEP's total Foreign Exchange revenue last year, vastly improving profitability. source: birrmetrics.com/ethiopia-elect… What do they do with that unexpected extra profit? EEP has stated repeatedly that the revenue from Bitcoin mining is used to support "infrastructure expansion" and "rural electrification" source: eep.com.et/?article=ethio… News channel Aljazeera recently confirmed "Ethiopia doesn't yet have the distribution network to take electricity to 1/2 the population...The idea is the fees paid by the Bitcoin miners will go towards funding the expansion of the grid." source: youtube.com/watch?v=mqie7b… Significantly, EEP's own data shows revenue from Bitcoin mining supported EEP's 2024/25 fiscal year * 28,571 km new power lines built * 8,700 substation bays installed Source: birrmetrics.com/ethiopia-elect… Bitcoin mining revenue has already almost doubled EEP's rate of energized network buildout from ~358 km/year average to +662 km last year. But more important is what is in the imminent pipeline: the 28,571 km of new power lines is larger than the entire size of their grid! source: eep.com.et/wp-content/upl… Let's be clear, we cannot say that "Ethiopia build more than their whole grid in a year" because not all of that new capacity has been fully energized yet, so that would be an apples-for-oranges comparison. But it is still an unprecedented rate of new construction. The good news is that the bulk of this infrastructure constructed but not yet fully energized is not “waiting years”, it is in active commissioning right now and is expected to come online progressively over the next 12–18 months. Source: Birr Metrics (EEP’s 2025/26 budget announcement) birrmetrics.com/electric-power… When that new network is fully energized, the increase in the speed of energized network buildout will not be 2x. It will be substantially higher, potentially more than 10-20x the historical average as the backlog comes online. Read that last sentence again. A forecast 10-20x faster buildout of Ethiopia's electrical grid. Rural electrification of Sub-Saharan Africa is a key strategic focus for over 20 global institutions and development banks, including the UN, World Bank, IRENA, African Development Bank, and Rockefeller Foundation. It is even explicitly one of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDG 7), where Target 7.1 calls for “universal access to affordable, reliable, and modern energy services by 2030.” Sub-Saharan Africa accounts for 85% of the world’s people still without electricity (mostly in rural areas), making this one of the biggest global priorities. How Ethiopia is achieving this should be one of the biggest stories at the UN right now. Far from “taking renewable power away” from people, Bitcoin mining’s use of otherwise wasted renewable energy is catalyzing the accelerated delivery of electricity to rural Africa. Bitcoin mining has created a pragmatic solution to an issue that has plagued powerful global institutions for decades. If you are still gaslighting Bitcoin mining in 2026 (based on early studies, now been widely debunked), you are no longer just uninformed. You are perpetuating harmful myths that slows down power delivery to people living without electricity.

Stop what? Stop presenting facts and data and drawing evidence-based conclusions and start telling people do and disagreeing with them without offering any data? No thanks. If you had a specific point you think is factually incorrect or not valid inference, let's hear your counterevidence.

The tariff reform (and resulting bill increases) began in late 2024 for structural/economic reasons enacted by IMF. Bitcoin mining arrived as a revenue-positive use of stranded power and is now being asked to pay closer to market rates itself. No peer-reviewed studies, official EEP statements, or news reports in the results link the general consumer price hikes causally to mining. In fact, the opposite narrative (mining helping utility finances and grid buildout) appears consistently. Your tweet is simply a rhetorical reply to evidence-based Bitcoin-mining coverage, but your implication doesn't hold up under scrutiny. In fact, Bitcoin is a valid alternative to IMF debt-servitude (as Bhutan discovered). The more revenue the utilites and govt have, the less they need IMF.

@DSBatten Have you then asked why electric bills soared by 300% in Ethiopia?

I asked you for data-backed articles that contradict the thesis that Bitcoin mining is helping accelerate the electrification of ethiopia without adverse impact on electricity prices or grid stability. You are giving back general articles which are in the first case outdated, and in the second case, were never accepted for publication. 1. Are you aware that you are using old Cambridge data, and Cambridge never said that Bitcoin mining strained grids or competed with other users? Cambridge's latest report is here, and shows Bitcoin mining is used to stabilize the grid, mitigate methane, and is 52.4% sustainable energy based. jbs.cam.ac.uk/2025/cambridge… 2. You know that this was a working paper from 3 years ago that was not accepted into a peer-reviewed journal for publication right? Now, do you know what the 5 papers on the subject of Bitcoin mining and grid stability say? Here's the highlights Menati et al. (2023) “Bitcoin mining’s flexibility increases both grid reliability & stability.” Rudd et al. (2023). Highlights: “transformative potential … especially regarding demand response, grid flexibility.” Bruno et al. (2023) Notes Bitcoin miners provide demand response (emissions impact largely mitigated) and can replace the need for gas peaker Chen and You (year not specified in summary) — Discusses flexible load optimization that can “reduc[e] energy consumption by up to 15%” and help balance grids Semaan et al. (2025) Describes mining as “a flexible, off-grid power sink” that supports grid balancing and renewable growth via curtailment reduction So since you want to be unbiased, which has more weight for you - 1 paper that was not accepted for publication, or 5 that were?

@DSBatten Here are a couple of major studies that support my argument: 1. The Global Scale: "The Bitcoin Country" The Cambridge Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index 2. Grid Strain and "Crowding Out" (U.S. Case Study) Research from the University of Chicago ሌላውን ሆድ ይፍጀው!

@kyisfa Unbiased questions have a different tone, like "hey I'm curious, what do you say to people who claim it raises electricity prices?" Your starting position is not neutral. Of course many articles challenge my claims. That's always true. But name me one that's backed up with data

@DSBatten Questioning isn’t bias, it’s thinking. I can cite many articles that challenge your claims too. Any way, good luck to Ethiopia.

@gettesfaw What part of EEP generating an extra $220Million revenue from energy that would've gone to waste, and using it to build out electricity infrastructure to supply rural areas, and the factories you mention, do you have a problem with? If you have a better idea, let's hear it

Sir there is not problem about you. The issue the greedy diaspora and corrupted government officials privatized Bitcoin mining while the 80%Ethiopian under complete darkness and factories urgently need power to operate. Every poor Ethiopian contributed money to build GERD, but thr GERD is now serving the global elite to make the more richer and richer. Power is not only light is, employment, it is clean water, it is agriculture and it is tourism that will employ millions of Ethiopian. While millions of Ethiopian caught under war and displacement and immigration the government is selling the countries resources to finance war and distraction.

@R89Capital It already has. Did you read the part about 28,000kms of new transmission lines and over 8000 new substation bays?

@DSBatten "The idea is the fees paid by the Bitcoin miners will go towards funding the expansion of the grid." Lol, yeah.. Will it though..

@gettesfaw What specific point do you believe are incorrect? Do you think EEP are misreporting their own data? Do you think Al Jazeera's reporting was incorrect? If you have a counterargument with data to back it up, let's hear it.

@DSBatten Oh boy you come this trash argument to make billions. GERD was built to light households, to provide electricity for factories to create jobs. Only 29% of Ethiopian connected to national grids. Please stop this trash propaganda which make millions Ethiopian to pain.

Bitcoin lowers electricity prices and is a non-rival energy user. See point 3 and point 8 in my article. x.com/DSBatten/statu… Rather than worry about things that you have not researched, why not research it first? You've made 3 assumptions so far - all of them easily rebutted with data. Are you sure you are approaching bitcoin with an open mind? It seems at the moment you're lurching from one reason not to like Bitcoin to another without having approached the subject objectively.

@DSBatten I am just worried that they drive up electricity costs for residents while competing with other industries that generate far more jobs per unit of power.

@BitBuyer313 Thought I'd check in. How are things? (Genuinely curious to know if you're back on a path that feels right)

@DSBatten Thank you, I greatly appreciate it

It's been a year since my bad LSD trip that landed me in the hospital with criminal charges. I spent the first half of 2025 doing a pre-trial deferment program and successfully got all my charges dropped. I'm done with psychedelics but I miss them dearly, I can't cry without them, I can count on one hand the number of times I've cried as a teen/adult and those where triggered by events that literally broke me. I was however able to cry freely on extremely heavy doses of LSD, and I used to look forward to trips as I knew I'd be able to unbottle all my pent up frustrations and emotions randomly throughout the trip. I'd sleep like a baby afterwards and wake up feeling like a new person the next day and that feeling would carry on for weeks. I miss that feeling. Lately I've been deeply depressed and constantly feel like I'm on the verge of tears that never come. I'm tired, my paycheck seems to buy me less every single week now, and the only thing that's been keeping me going is my family and the Bitcoin I have stashed away for their future. I'm mentally exhausted and checked out....