Most of the team had been working on bitcoin hype in one way or another before the meeting, “but coming together like this will allow us to formalize those efforts and focus on three key related areas,” he said. Continue: "Get clear and accurate information about Bitcoin to policymakers and regulators, highlight the environmental and sustainability benefits of mining, and collate and provide educational resources for the next generation of Bitcoiners."
Author and journalist DecentraSuze, whose son recently introduced bitcoin to the classroom, serves as director, while Jordan Walker and Mark Morton, co-founders of The Bitcoin Collective, serve as advisors. Walker told that BPUK is an important piece of the collective puzzle to drive bitcoin education in the UK: "It's time for the UK to step up when it comes to embracing new technologies like bitcoin, or we risk being left behind."
New told that BPUK is not for profit. To operate, it hopes to raise funds through the community, capitalizing on the growing trend of funding projects in satoshis, or small amounts of BTC, via the Lightning Network, a layer 2 instant payment solution built on top of bitcoin.
New explained that part of the team's mission is to find and use renewable, waste or idle energy in the UK. “We are working to identify potential sites for sustainable mining and our aim is to develop a number of small mining facilities that will serve as ‘proof of concept’ sites.
He went on to plan: "We can then invite UK policy makers to these sites so they can see the mines in operation and hopefully learn more about the role of the industry in reducing methane emissions, providing demand response for renewable grids or simply acting as Potential in terms of customer potential. Energy would be wasted otherwise.”
The UK has thriving renewable energy but lacks hash rate (a measure of the security of the Bitcoin protocol). According to the Cambridge Center for Alternative Finance, the U.K. supports 0.23 percent of the global monthly hash rate, compared to 37.84 percent in the U.S.
This is partly due to electricity costs in the UK exceeding those in the US and Asia, but also due to awareness (or lack thereof) of bitcoin mining in the UK. In addition, in recent years, traditional media platforms have targeted the Bitcoin mining industry - The Guardian criticized Bitcoin as "digital beef" rather than "digital gold." The BPUK emphasized that in light of the UK’s departure from the EU, it could develop a regime for bitcoin and cryptocurrencies that is regulated independently of the European Market for Cryptoassets (MiCA). European Parliament MiCA Committee Could Threaten Bitcoin Mining on the Continent.
BPUK co-founder Krista Edmunds took inspiration from El Salvador's decision to adopt Bitcoin as legal tender in 2021. Edmunds explained: “The UK has a huge opportunity to become one of the first jurisdictions in the world to accept Bitcoin. We’ve seen the possibilities in El Salvador, which is reaping huge gains due to its forward-thinking approach to Bitcoin. The UK can get similar competitive advantage and we want to support the British people in making this happen."
On the government side, policy groups will have the opportunity to educate and advocate. Lisa Cameron, MP and chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Cryptocurrencies and Digital Assets (APPG), told Cointelegraph in an interview last year: “We are on a learning curve, which is very, very important because the UK .The government’s policy vision is that the UK will become an international center for cryptocurrencies and digital assets.” She added that there is some confusion surrounding bitcoin, central bank digital currencies and cryptocurrencies.
