Bitcoin has a branding problem
When it comes to Bitcoin and blockchain technology, the truth is often not as important as perception. Because to the western world, Bitcoin is still viewed as an energy guzzler with no real benefit to society.
Flipping the narrative on its head
Yet, the biggest perceived flaw of Bitcoin – its energy consumption – may actually be its biggest gift to humanity. However, data supporting Bitcoin as a lever for balancing the energy grid, incentivizing renewables, and offsetting methane emissions are all moot if mass media continues to push a consumptive narrative with doomsday headlines and faulty logic.
Take this 2017 article by Newsweek as an example, headlined “Bitcoin Mining on Track to Consume All of the World’s Energy by 2020”. Not only has this doomsday scenario not played out, analysts are poking holes in misleading data, while Bitcoin is on the path toward carbon neutrality faster than any other industry.
Other cryptocurrencies and blockchain companies aren’t helping. They harp on their energy reduction while failing to cite the reason for Bitcoin’s success is because of its proof-of-work (PoW) consensus which drives energy usage.
Perception vs. reality
It doesn’t matter that academic research is showing the benefits of Bitcoin to combat climate change and support a clean energy grid, because the perception of it has not changed. It doesn’t even matter that the World Economic Forum (WEF) which perpetually bashes Bitcoin actually shows Bitcoin miners helping capture waste methane, without ever mentioning the word Bitcoin in their video!
Therefore, it will be the storytellers, the marketers, and the branding experts who will help push global adoption of the world’s largest cryptocurrency, not just as an investment, but as a truly unbiased financial tool accessible to everyone.
Bitcoin writers and Bitcoin content marketers should put themselves in the shoes of climate activists and cryptocurrency skeptics. It’s the only way to fully understand the energy argument against Bitcoin.
