God save our currency, long live the currency. A team of entrepreneurs, environmentalists and Bitcoin (BTC) advocates have come together to support Bitcoin in Britain.
Bitcoin Policy UK (BPUK) brings together stakeholders, policy makers, environmentalists, tax specialists, Bitcoin experts and miners to “unleash the potential of Bitcoin” in Britain, and explore how the burgeoning decentralized currency industry could benefit UK homes, businesses and communities.
BPUK’s main goals are to drive investment, generate and prepare students for the Bitcoin jobs of the future, raise awareness and education, while exploring the use of untapped and abandoned energy resources for Bitcoin mining.
Policy chief Freddie New told Cointelegraph that “the genesis of this project was the Bitcoin Collective Conference in Edinburgh.” The Bitcoin Collective conference was the largest Bitcoin conference in the UK and took place in Autumn 2022.
New told Cointelegraph via email that most of the team had been working on defending Bitcoin in one way or another before the conference. “But coming together in this way will allow us to formalize these efforts and focus on three related key areas.” And he continued:
“By getting clear and correct information about Bitcoin to policy makers and regulators, highlighting the environmental and sustainability benefits of the mining industry, and collating and providing educational resources for the next generation of Bitcoiners.”
Some of the advisors and board members are known to Cointelegraph readers. Author and journalist DecentraSuze, whose son recently introduced Bitcoin to the classroom, is one of the directors, while Jordan Walker, co-founder of the UK Bitcoin Collective, and Mark Morton are advisors. Morton’s Bitcoin mining company, Scilling Digital Mining, was featured in a recent Cointelegraph mini-documentary:
Walker told Cointelegraph that the BPUK is an important piece of the collective puzzle to boost Bitcoin education in the UK:
“It is time for the UK to step up in adopting new technologies like Bitcoin, otherwise we risk being left behind.”
New explained to Cointelegraph that the BPUK is non-profit. To function, it hopes to raise funds through the community, taking advantage of the growing trend of financing projects with Satoshis, or small amounts of BTC, through the Lightning Network, a Layer 2 instant payment solution built on top of the Bitcoin network.
Part of the team’s mission is to locate and harness renewable, untapped or abandoned energy across the UK, New explained.
“We are working […] to identify potential sites for sustainable mining, and our goal is to develop some small mining facilities to use as ‘proof of concept’ sites.
And he continued with the plan: “Then we will be able to invite UK policy makers to these sites to see the mines in action and hopefully better understand the industry’s potential to mitigate vented methane, provide response to the demand from renewable grids or simply acting as a customer for energy that would otherwise go to waste.
The UK has flourishing sources of renewable energy, but lacks a hash rate (a measure of the security of the Bitcoin protocol). According to the Cambridge Center for Alternative Finance, the United Kingdom represents 0.23% of the global monthly hash rate, compared to 37.84% in the United States.
This is partly due to UK electricity costs outpacing those in the US and Asia, but also due to awareness of Bitcoin mining – or lack thereof – in the UK. Additionally, the mainstream media has taken aim at the Bitcoin mining industry in recent years: The Guardian criticized Bitcoin as “digital meat” rather than “digital gold”.
BPUK notes that, in light of the UK’s exit from the European Union, it could develop a regime for Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies separate from MiCA in Europe. The European Parliamentary Committee on Crypto Asset Markets (MiCA) could threaten Bitcoin mining on the continent.
BPUK co-founder Krista Edmunds was inspired by El Salvador’s decision to adopt Bitcoin as legal tender in 2021. Edmunds explained:
“The UK has an immense opportunity to become one of the world’s first jurisdictions to adopt Bitcoin. We have seen what is possible in El Salvador, which is seeing huge gains due to its forward-thinking approach to Bitcoin. The UK can secure a similar competitive advantage, and we look forward to supporting the British people in making it happen.”
From the governmental point of view, the political group will have the opportunity to educate and inform. Lisa Cameron, MP and Chair of the Cross Party Parliamentary Group on Cryptocurrencies and Digital Assets (APPG), told Cointelegraph in an interview last year: “We are on a learning curve and it is very, very important because the UK government has the political vision of the UK becoming an international hub for cryptocurrencies and digital assets.” She added that there was some confusion surrounding Bitcoin, CBDCs and cryptocurrencies.
As an organization dedicated exclusively to Bitcoin, its director, New, explains that the BPUK ultimately seeks to “make sure that Bitcoin is included in government proposals, if not front and center.”
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