Alex de Vries has received a lot of hate for saying that bitcoin is bad for the environment. A Google search reveals a plethoric pushback against his research. People are not happy. Crypto bros have devoted entire subreddits to discrediting the economist’s reporting as propaganda linked to his job at the Dutch central bank. Speakers at cryptocurrency events name-check him in their conversations. Blockchain boffins argue against his conclusions in columns and articles.

“Let’s just say I have plenty of fans in the bitcoin space,” de Vries shrugs when Verdict brings up the critique. “Over the years, I [have] learned not to pay too much attention to it.”

Despite the predominantly online abuse, he’s not shutting up. Not only is he still publishing new insights on his site Digiconomist, but he’s also picking up the phone whenever journalists call. His phone has rung red hot with reporters asking about his research in the lead-up to Earth Day on 22 April. They’re asking him for good reason: he is one of the world’s foremost authorities on the environmental impact of cryptocurrencies.

“I guess my research kind of put this topic on the map because I started doing it six years ago when nobody was talking about it,” de Vries says.

However, it was someone else’s writing that put him on the path. He remembers reading a story on Motherboard from 2015 that shook him to the core. “[It] suggested that a single bitcoin transaction on average consumed as much electricity as a US household in one and a half day at the time,” de Vries says. “That’s a lot of energy for something that is ultimately as simple as me sending your money – that should not be the case.”

He…