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Academic Flaws Fueling Bitcoin Mistrust

In the cryptoverse, misinformation is as bad as rug pulls, but this time the culprits aren’t shady exchanges—they’re academics. At Bitcoin Amsterdam 2024, experts ripped into how academic reports have steered public opinion off course. The “Beyond Resistance Money” panel on day two focused on how botched academic research keeps feeding inaccurate narratives. And it’s not just the media that’s getting duped—policymakers are acting on this bad intel, leading to lousy laws and busted regulations.

Inaccuracies in BTC Emissions Data

Andrew Bailey, from Yale-NUS College and Bitcoin Policy Institute, dropped a serious red flag. He pointed to a popular academic paper that threw out some totally off-the-mark Bitcoin emissions data. The error? A “unit misfire” in the chart that never got fixed. But the problem? The paper is still getting referenced as if it’s untouchable. Bailey fired off: “The problem, I’m afraid, is academics. And the wrong or even damaging things they say about Bitcoin… but nobody reads this stuff. Right? Right?” Yeah, wrong. People read it, and those little numbers are driving big mistakes.

Journalists Pick Up Bad Data

Bradley Rettler, an associate professor from Wyoming, didn’t hold back either. He dug into how journalists pick up these shaky reports and then blast them into the mainstream. He explained that journalists don’t have the time to fact-check every academic paper, so they end up relying on these flawed sources. Rettler put it bluntly: “You start with crap, you end up getting crap.” And so, that’s how bad info spreads like wildfire, infecting both media and public perception.

Impact on Bitcoin Mining and Privacy

Then came Craig Warmke from the Bitcoin Policy Institute, making sure the room understood the stakes. He warned that policymakers don’t have the time—or the expertise—to dig deep into the academic weeds. So they rely on journalism, which often relies on bad research. He pointed to places like Sweden, where faulty emissions data led to proposals to tax Bitcoin miners out of existence. It’s also taking shots at developers working on financial privacy, an area getting more heat due to misinformed policy. Warmke stressed: “This bad research… it’s bled through to journalism, to policy, and then onto law enforcement.”