The PhD Data Bitcoin's Critics Don't Want to See w/ Dr. Margot Paez

About this episode

Jesse interviews Dr. Margot Paez about her empirical study on Bitcoin mining load flexibility and its implications for energy consumption and policy.

🔗 Dr. Margot Paez: X (Twitter): https://x.com/jyn_urso LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/margotpaez/ BPI Profile: https://www.btcpolicy.org/authors/margot-paez 📄 PhD Thesis: https://github.com/dmrobotix/phd/blob/main/dissertation.pdf In this episode of HashrateUp, Jesse sits down with Dr. Margot Paez, PhD researcher and fellow at the Bitcoin Policy Institute, to dig into the first empirical study of Bitcoin mining load flexibility across North American facilities. Dr. Paez collected hourly energy consumption data from 21 Bitcoin mining facilities and built a full network simulation model to study how miners respond to real-time price signals, curtailment incentives, and grid conditions. The conversation covers what the data actually shows about miner flexibility, why Texas facilities outperform the rest, what grid operators in other regions are getting wrong, and how the ongoing shift of public miners toward AI workloads threatens to permanently reduce one of the grid's most valuable flexible loads. The episode also explores the parallels between Bitcoin mining energy FUD and the emerging AI narrative, why academic research on data centers keeps getting it wrong, and what…

People in this episode

Host: Jesse

Guest: Dr. Margot Paez

Topics covered

• Bitcoin mining
• energy consumption
• data analysis
• grid flexibility
• policy implications
• AI workloads

Keywords

• Bitcoin mining
• energy flexibility
• data study
• grid conditions
• policy
• AI workloads
• climate science

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Bitcoin Policy Institute

Books & works: PhD Thesis

Places: Texas, North America

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