That is an opinion editorial by BitcoinActuary, an actuary primarily based within the U.Okay.
I’ve lately returned from spending an extended weekend with round 200,000 others at one of many loves of my life, Glastonbury Competition. The 2023 model of this annual music competition was peppered with units from huge identify acts — Elton John, Weapons N’ Roses and Foo Fighters, to call a couple of — however the inevitable media deal with these tends to mislead these viewing it from the surface. Glastonbury is a phenomenon of huge scale; it could possibly be described as 10 festivals wrapped into one. Almost everybody who goes will let you know they’ve had a good time, however in all probability all for various causes.
So, what hyperlinks Glastonbury with Bitcoin? Some cursory analysis and my very own journeys to the competition in recent times recommend that only a few have ever made a hyperlink in any respect, barring this typically-scathing Guardian effort from a few years again.
Certainly, many in all probability see the 2 as polar opposites. Glastonbury is famously left wing — there stays the Left Discipline tent, which homes talks and debates by activists and union members, led by the ever-present, “broadly leftist” Billy Bragg. The pyramid stage discipline featured grass coloring this yr to show the enormous message: “We Stand With The NHS” in assist of the U.Okay.’s Nationwide Well being Service.
Bitcoin, against this, is usually characterised as a know-how that appeals to the appropriate wing. David Golumbia went about so far as it’s potential to go in his 2016 ebook “The Politics Of Bitcoin: Software program As Proper-Wing Extremism.”
Secondly, the competition is environmentally acutely aware and has lengthy supported Greenpeace. Against this, Bitcoin is consistently criticized for its supposedly-wasteful power use. Greenpeace’s U.S. arm has been accountable for its infamously poor “change the code, not the local weather” marketing campaign in opposition to Bitcoin, funded to the tune of $5 million by Ripple’s Chris Larson.
However are Glastonbury and Bitcoin actually irreconcilable? By no means.
Firstly, on the political entrance, Bitcoin itself is definitely apolitical. It’s a algorithm with out rulers. Anybody who makes an attempt to argue in any other case tends to mischaracterize it, and infrequently depends on typecasting the common Bitcoiner as proper wing. In response, I’d encourage readers to take a longer-term have a look at financial historical past, and to ask the likes of Golumbia what it’s about this open-source, universally-accessible, elective, non-coercive protocol that’s so detestable. The neatest shortcut response to this hypothetical comes from Natalie Smolenski: “Being an enemy of a know-how is a reasonably dumb option to waste your time since you’re not accountable for whether or not a know-how is adopted at any significant scale.”
Furthermore, these from the “progressive” finish of the political spectrum are starting to make their voices heard and present that Bitcoin has common attraction. Reminder: Bitcoin is for enemies.
Onto Bitcoin’s environmental affect. As argued right here and right here, all isn’t what it initially appears when evaluating Bitcoin’s ongoing power use. In actuality, Bitcoin is working with ever-increasing effectivity and it drives behavioral change by decreasing an people time desire, which could be a important step in decreasing the rampant and wasteful consumerism that we see on this planet immediately.
In abstract, on each the political and environmental fronts, Bitcoin and Glastonbury will not be the polar opposites that many would assume. There are commonalities, too. Each go well with a libertarian outlook. Every has one-word model recognition. Each would seem to promote themselves — Bitcoin, after all, has seen explosive progress with no formal advertising and marketing division, whereas Glastonbury tickets over the earlier decade have usually offered out in lower than an hour and round eight months earlier than the occasion is definitely held. Bitcoin has memes, Glastonbury has memes on flags.
So, how would possibly Glastonbury embrace Bitcoin?
This previous yr, it was putting simply what number of funds have been being made by card versus only some years earlier, when money reigned supreme. With many small retailers on the competition, it may massively cut back charges of anyplace between 1.5% and three.5% at present levied on each buy, by embracing Bitcoin’s Lightning Community as an added fee choice. Within the U.Okay., I’d recommend trying out the wonderful work executed by CoinCorner and Bridge2Bitcoin in driving ahead the Lightning Community as a low-cost fee mechanism for retailers.
As well as, bitcoin may characterize a pure, long-term treasury reserve asset for Glastonbury — a long-term holding in bitcoin may assist journey out any tough occasions in future. Certainly, the competition is not any stranger to the pernicious nature of inflation: Ticket costs have been £105 in 2003 and had elevated to £335 in 2023, which little doubt displays the numerous will increase in prices confronted.
Glastonbury have lengthy been forward of the curve in making sweeping adjustments forward of others. In 2007, it eradicated ticket touts and scalpers in a single fell swoop by together with competition goers’ images on tickets. In 2019, it banned single-use plastic bottles fully from the location, and in 2023, round 22,000 tickets have been offered particularly for competition goers touring by bus. Would possibly it additionally get forward of the curve in embracing Bitcoin?
Admittedly, in all probability not, primarily based on any present proof. However I’d say to Michael and Emily Eavis, the organizers of the occasion: Dig slightly deeper than the present, skewed output on show from mainstream publications within the U.Okay. There’s rather more to Bitcoin than first meets the attention.
Michael Eavis confirmed on this yr’s competition program that the native council has now issued a license for them to carry the competition in perpetuity. This should really feel notably candy, given his struggles with them over time. For Glastonbury, it appears, there’ll all the time be one other yr. And so too for Bitcoin.
This can be a visitor publish by BitcoinActuary. Opinions expressed are fully their very own and don’t essentially mirror these of BTC Inc or Bitcoin Journal.
