Flawed research on Bitcoin fuels harmful policies

Speakers at the Bitcoin Amsterdam 2024 conference discussed the far-reaching consequences of flawed academic research on Bitcoin (CRYPTO:BTC), particularly how it misleads media coverage and results in misguided policies.

During the "Beyond Resistance Money" panel discussion, Andrew Bailey, a professor at Yale-NUS College and senior fellow at the Bitcoin Policy Institute, pointed to a specific academic paper that inaccurately reported Bitcoin emissions data.

He said, "The problem, I’m afraid, is academics. And the wrong or even damaging things they say about Bitcoin... Academics have been wrong about Bitcoin, but nobody reads this stuff. Right? Right?"

He explained that the paper contained a "unit error in the chart" that has not been corrected but is still widely cited.

Bradley Rettler, associate professor of philosophy at the University of Wyoming, added that journalists often spread these inaccuracies due to time constraints and lack of subject expertise.

He noted, “So the journalists read these academic papers, and they translate them into everyday parlance and the problem is, when you start with crap, you end up getting crap.”

Craig Warmke, a member of the Bitcoin Policy Institute, warned that such misinformation impacts policymaking.

"Policymakers and regulators don’t have time to read these academic papers, so they read the journalism and this has resulted in some attacks on BTC mining, self-custody, and financial privacy."

He pointed out that Sweden, for instance, has proposed taxing the Bitcoin mining industry out of existence.

At the time of writing, the Bitcoin price was $62,919.99.