The Lightning Energy Market with Austin Mitchell - WBD579
The Peter McCormack Show
Peter McCormack
4.7 • 2.8K Ratings
🗓️ 12 November 2022
⏱️ 56 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Austin Mitchell is the Co-Founder and CEO of Synota. In this interview, we discuss his plan to use the Lightning Network to settle transactions in the energy industry, and how this should bring greater equality to the energy market whilst also enabling the whole energy economy to move to the Lightning Network.
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Bitcoin is prospectively the best version of money, worldwide instant payments rail, market-based accelerant for energy production, and energy grid stabiliser. It's infuriating that more people aren't waking up to its potential. Perhaps it's the FUD, the passive damage caused by dysfunction in the crypto industry, or the ignorance of there being bitcoin the money and Bitcoin the network.
But Bitcoin's story is still being written; as many keep saying - it's still early. We all know that there are nascent layer 2 innovations that are taking Bitcoin in new directions. But even hardened advocates continue to be amazed at the use cases being developed using Bitcoin's various characteristics.
Take the Lightning Network: the game-changing payment protocol. It is the layer that enables Bitcoin to scale. But what does that actually mean? Well, quite a lot. Bitcoin is fast becoming an integral part of the energy industry. In addition to the known functions comes a new one: the Lightning Network's instant settlement facility and distributed payment network is set to transform energy finance.
The current system is predicated on old analogue payment processes, full of inefficiencies that unnecessarily bloat costs for producers and consumers. The prize is a real-time payment system that simplifies energy finance whilst enabling greater functionality. It could make the market more flexible, dynamic and equitable. The result could be that it draws the whole energy economy onto the Lightning Network.
It's a lightbulb moment given how big that industry is: $4.5 trillion is spent on energy a year. There are additional services that could be included. The lightbulb fuses when you think about what other industries could find similar utility. The lightbulb explodes when you remember Lightning is just one of many layer 2 innovations. We're still so very very early.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Now imagine the lightning network being very similar to the energy system itself and how it moves money |
| 0:12.0 | and where every physical node |
| 0:14.0 | now has its own node in the lightning network and when energy moves in one |
| 0:18.4 | direction money moves in the other. Basically what we're creating is a system |
| 0:22.0 | where money can move as fast as energy. |
| 0:24.0 | Hello from sunny Los Angeles, how are you all? |
| 0:27.0 | Just want to say a massive thanks, a big shout out to the Swan team for the amazing Pacific |
| 0:32.0 | Bitcoin conference. Had a a great time some great talks |
| 0:34.8 | great to catch up with some Bitcoiners also it's been a really weird fucking week to |
| 0:39.1 | anyone who is suffering under what's happened with FTX, we send out our kind of sympathies for you. |
| 0:45.2 | It's been a really shit week. |
| 0:47.0 | I'm not sure how this is going to play out, |
| 0:49.2 | but listen, stay strong with Bitcoiners. |
| 0:52.1 | Anyway, welcome to the What Bitcoin did podcast, which is brought to you by Gemini. |
| 0:55.8 | The only place I'm using for buying Bitcoin, I'm your host Peter McCormack, and today I've got |
| 0:59.9 | Austin Mitchell, the co-founder and CEO of Sinota on. |
| 1:03.6 | Now just before I came out to LA, Jeff Booth |
| 1:05.9 | got in touch and recommended I talk to Austin |
| 1:08.2 | as Sinota are looking to use the lightning |
| 1:10.0 | network to settle transactions in the energy industry and being a recommendation from Jeff Booth is obviously somebody I'm going to talk to. |
| 1:17.0 | The idea seems super interesting and Danny was very keen that we make this show so we met up with Austin at the conference and then we went back and |
| 1:24.8 | recorded after a whole day where I was actually on stage. I was a bit tired, we only managed |
... |
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