Bitcoin is Saving Small Farms

About this episode

Mark Smith discusses how Bitcoin and agrivoltaics can empower small farms to become self-sustaining and financially independent.

In this episode, Brandon Karpeles speaks with Mark Smith, Co-Founder and CEO of Carbon Country. After spending over a decade in corporate America navigating the political and business landscape for major brands, Mark stepped off the hamster wheel to build a regenerative farm powered by solar energy and secured by Bitcoin. They discuss the broken incentives of industrial fiat agriculture and how combining agrivoltaics (dual-use solar and farming) with Bitcoin mining can allow small farms to become their own banks. In this episode, we cover: • Escaping Corporate Life: Mark’s journey from international government affairs and corporate America to realizing the "golden handcuffs" were just a cage. • Agrivoltaics & Dual-Use Farming: How Carbon Country uses solar panels in tandem with regenerative agriculture to maximize the utility of the land and keep farms profitable. • Community Solar & Microgrids: Why decentralizing the power grid can provide cheap, renewable energy to local and low-income communities. • Farms as Their Own Banks: How Carbon Country uses excess energy to mine Bitcoin, generating digital assets that replace traditional fiat lenders for working…

People in this episode

Guest: Mark Smith

Topics covered

• Bitcoin
• small farms
• regenerative agriculture
• agrivoltaics
• solar energy
• decentralized power
• community solar
• Bitcoin mining

Keywords

• corporate life
• golden handcuffs
• microgrids
• self-sustaining farms
• Center for Small Farm Resilience

Mentioned in this episode

Products: Bitcoin, solar panels

Places: America

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