Troy Cross

As a professor in metaphysics and epistemology, Troy Cross is a naturally curious guy and recognised the potential of Bitcoin way back in 2011. However, as a passionate environmentalist, he conflicted about its energy use. His early calculations led him to believe that Bitcoin’s energy use would become a large problem and he had mixed feelings about even holding it, let alone promoting it.

But this started to change as he realised errors in his calculations, similar to the ones behind the famous article, ‘Bitcoin Mining on Track to Consume All of the World's Energy by 2020’, which clearly didn’t materialise. He also realised that the unique properties of Bitcoin mining could in fact aid the green energy transition and have a positive impact on the environment, contrary to popular belief.

After months of shitposting and being a reply guy on Twitter, he got on the What Bitcoin Did Show, and it’s fair to say the rest is history. His ideas were so unique and transformative that he went from being a professor at places like Yale, Oxford, and Reed to Bitcoin celebrity in a matter of seconds and has had to take a year out teaching to dedicate all his time to Bitcoin. He’s now an advisor to several companies and projects that share his vision. He is also a fellow at the Bitcoin Policy Institute, travelling the world speaking at conferences and talking to governments, and has started working on his own project.

The night before our call he had been on a panel at an intense MIT computer science conference, but still took the time out of his day to dive headfirst into a 3 hour conversation with me. He’s a truly wonderful guy, and we feel blessed to announce that he will be speaking at the CowShed.