coinedition.com
Pierre Rochard, the Vice President of Research at the bitcoin mining and digital infrastructure company Riot Platforms, shared the platform’s response to the White House’s Office of Science and Technology Policy’s (OSTP) request for information (RFI) for the Federal Research agenda.
Notably, Rochard shared a series of Twitter threads providing an informative sketch on bitcoin, beneficial for Federal research as well as the public:
Today @RiotPlatforms provided a response to the White House OSTP RFI on #Bitcoin. The White House wanted input from the public for the Federal research agenda.
— Pierre Rochard (@BitcoinPierre) March 3, 2023
First, first let's look at the tremendous value of #Bitcoin and some of what we've learned since its invention [1/3] pic.twitter.com/1OsOtUx0bb
Initially, he pictured the “tremendous value of bitcoin”, drawing attention to the image of bitcoin’s details known since its inception. He incorporated the screenshots of the data provided by Riot Platforms, in which the company explains the features of Bitcoin.
Significantly, the company claimed that Bitcoin is open to everyone, stating:
The option to use Bitcoin is available to everyone equally, the powerful and the marginalized, the banked and the unbanked. As a public network, Bitcoin is a beacon of global empowerment and financial inclusion.
In addition, he narrated the use of Bitcoin’s “multi-signature functionality”, which could help reduce the risks and harms of holding private key material.
Furthermore, he provided an in-depth analysis of the illicit activities involving bitcoin claiming that “almost all bitcoin transaction volume reflects lawful usage”:
In 2022, only an estimated 0.24% of transaction volume was associated with illicit usage whereas the UN estimates that traditional fiat money laundering is 2.7% global GDP.
Adding to the content, Rochard talked about the energy consumption of bitcoin mining, commenting that Bitcoin provided “energy security”.
While concluding the sketch, Rochard enlisted a group of methods that would be helpful for the research, including the study of the potential effect, evaluation of national security interest, examination of risks of CBDC networks, and more.