U.K. Energy price freeze. A proposed solution

 In a nutshell, rather than using tax cuts or energy subsidies or windfall taxes on energy companies to compensate for the massive increase in energy prices here is my alternative suggestion:

Firstly, I understand that almost 50% of the U.K.’s energy needs are supplied by renewables including wind power and 15% supplied by UK-based nuclear reactors. These sources of energy are UK based and owned mainly by private shareholders some of whom (wind farms?) may have received government subsidies. Along with energy imports these sources are now charging market prices for energy which has not increased in production cost! They will be charging up to 5 times the price at the beginning of 2022 without any matching production costs. Making perhaps 10 x net profits! 

Secondly, I would mention that whilst I am not normally in favour of price controls, there is no reason that these two sources of energy should be allowed to charge the full global market price which will soon be five times that at the beginning of this year. 

I am therefore suggesting that a price cap is immediately imposed on these two sources of energy rather than a windfall tax or any other subsidy provided to consumers and businesses. The price control limit/benchmark would be based upon the prevailing UK energy wholesale prices at the beginning of 2022. 

Otherwise , we will see over the next 2 to 3 years a potential massive transfer of wealth of up to around £200bn from millions of taxpayers to a very small number of investors who will all become millionaires and some billionaires! 

— These rewards are more appropriate for venture capitalists —  not for risk averse investors in steady earning and relatively risk free blue chip companies, ie renewable and nuclear energy producers. 

The energy price rise crisis is so desperate, that desperate measures as above are required. 

Why burden the UK government with massive amounts of debt and the UK taxpayer with massive amounts of future tax paying requirements to pay off any tax cuts and subsidies as are being proposed?  

Tax cuts will still be needed to help with the general UK cost-of-living crisis of course, but we should not be using these financial strategies to largely subsidise hugely profitable UK energy companies. 

it seems that almost every business that uses energy will be unable to continue and survive and consumers will still be unable to pay unless something dramatic is put in place. 

We have the answer:

— Price control of All UK energy suppliers, with even nationalisation considered or proposed if necessary. 

Lastly… 

The Times today:

“ Liz Truss is expected to make an announcement imminently about a support package to deal with rising energy bills, which is expected to include a price freeze that may *well cost more than the Covid furlough scheme.”

*By performing the price freeze in the way I have described above will not cost the government or the taxpayers anything. 

Saving the government, future taxpayers and energy consumers from an unnecessary £££billions funded price freeze with a price control and cap instead.

PS. Also this Telegraph article this afternoon in support:

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2022/09/05/war-shameful-profiteering-energy-market-justifies-radical-intervention/

 10 Years in Bitcoin : 2012 - 2022

On 3 April 2012 my life changed; it was just an ordinary spring sunny day in London (like today) and I came across an article in the London Times about bitcoin. 

tinyurl.com/bitcoinTheTimes

That was my Eureka! moment about the potential future of money - decentralized, under the control of no-one, with no trusted central authority. Bitcoin is on a decentralized ledger called a  Blockchain.

The link above to the Times article is also on the header of my twitter account which I changed to this handle - @BitcoinByte on the same day, when I jumped into action, securing a domain and creating my first blog post on the following day:

 http://bitcoinbytes.blogspot.com/2012/04/what-is-bitcoin.html?m=0

Prior to Bitcoin and the world of digital currencies I had devoted my career to finance and innovation (e.g. Dubai) and loved technology. Having a deep understanding of how the global banking system operates my ‘a-ha’ moment came suddenly with Bitcoin. I very quickly became something of a bitcoin ‘aficionado’ to anyone who would listen and built up quite a following; from there onwards it was a fascinating ride and a lot of fun. I made friends, traveled the world to present at conferences (Cards & Payments) both in South Africa (Johannesburg) and Singapore and continued to learn a great deal. 

In 2012, the London Bitcoin scene was not yet on the mainstream radar and was a melting pot of intellectuals, futurists and open-minded disruptors hoping to bring about positive change to the current legacy banking, money and financial system.

Meetups were a fun place to be, full of hope and excitement. I was welcomed by this community and seem to stand out somewhat as an older ex-establishment figure. People were often surprised that an ex-banker, someone with international experience in London, Dubai and Moscow should have embraced this amazing new scene.

But far from being held at arm's length, I was supported, pushed even towards speaking out more and helping spread the word as for example in this Forbes piece on Bitcoin by Jon Matonis in 2012.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/jonmatonis/2012/11/03/ecb-roots-of-bitcoin-can-be-found-in-the-austrian-school-of-economics/?sh=741cbac23b18

Before long I was being asked to make presentations about Bitcoin to a major UK clearing bank in July 2012 at their Canary Wharf HQ, then again late that year to their credit card HQ in Northampton. In 2013 I was called to present to senior UK civil servants at the Future of Money event held at the Department for Business Information and Skills in Victoria.

This was picked up and reported in the Financial Times:

https://www.ft.com/content/42ca6762-bbfc-11e2-82df-00144feab7de

I did other follow-up work including leading a Cabinet Office round table event, a successful and positive meeting with HMRC regarding VAT on Bitcoin - link https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2013/12/06/uk-tax-authority-hmrc-rethinks-stance-on-bitcoin/ and HM Treasury

A year after I started, I gave this interview with System D media highlighting the FT front page article on Bitcoin https://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/1cw251/system_d_media_interview_michael_parsons_about/?utm_source=amp&utm_medium=

Next came media interest. With Bitcoin surging to $1000+ in 2013 a British national broadcaster, ITV, did a news segment on Bitcoin. ITV presented this as something of a novelty piece, I can be seen buying, on TV, the first ever pint of Beer using bitcoin (for £3.00 / 0.0474 BTC – now about £1,650!).

Looking back now I am proud to have been able to bring this tech to life for skeptics. ITV have since taken down the clip, but you can still see it on the wayback machine. https://web.archive.org/web/20130629200720/https://www.itv.com/news/london/topic/bitcoin/ 

As time went on I made more friends in the space and met many of the bitcoin pioneers and thought leaders. International crypto innovators, disruptors and travelers stayed at my house. I visited many of the key active players of the time at squats and underground events.

Memorable ‘pre-fame’ interactions with Vitalik Buterin, Roger Ver, Andreas Antonopolous, Nic Carey, Erik Voorhees, Amir Taaki, Mike Hearn, (etc, etc). In those days, crypto in-fighting was minimal, Bitcoin was a unifying force and Satoshi was a wonderful mystery.

Like many others, particularly after Ethereum launched, I strayed away from Bitcoin, keeping an open mind to innovation and becoming frustrated with some of its shortfalls. 

Peer–to-Peer, censorship resistant, electronic cash was still my main interest but the tantalising disruptive prospect of smart contracts was a strong siren song. But even during those years I never lost sight of where it had all begun and the key role of Bitcoin at the centre of the crypto universe.

I continued (and will continue) to make appearances on the BBC, Sky and Al-Jazeera news channels promoting and discussing Bitcoin e.g. 

BBC News - Bitcoin / CSW https://youtu.be/m-S1rCHefLU

BBC News - Bitcoin / https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BFfGbDtiEio

Al Jazeera  Arabic channel - Bitcoin
Al Jazeera - Arabic channel -Bitcoin
BBC R4 Report: Bitcoin - 

http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/radio4/r4report/r4report_20130425-2230a.mp3?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

BBC Radio 5 Live - no link

Bit-Talk with BitcoinByte -  http://www.iamsatoshi.com/bit-talk-bitcoin-byte/

Some years ago some of my time was spent offering occasional consultancy (as a member of 3 expert networks) through my company: I have made telephone and personal presentations about bitcoin/blockchain/crypto to very well-known global companies, including merchant banks, tech stocks and global hedge funds. 

Although this article is about my own discovery of, and my 10 year bitcoin journey, – outside of bitcoin, I would mention that many of the early adopters whom I know in the blockchain/token/crypto space have gone on from bitcoin to achieve success and recognition with further innovations and development.

My predictions for the next ten years? With Bitcoin, Crypto and Blockchain now having entered the mainstream since late 2017, innovation is continuing to accelerate at an almost exponential rate, compared to the early days prior to 2015 when Ethereum (ETH) was the main additional crypto token launched.

Bitcoin and Ethereum continue to be the market leaders with innovations continuing with the development of many other useful Tokens, Stablecoins, De-Fi (Decentralized Finance) and of course NFT’s (Non Fungible Tokens).

Social Media

I have also built up significant and useful networks on both on both Twitter: 

(@BitcoinByte & @Bitc01n) 

After the first year:

https://twitter.com/BitcoinByte/status/319845760449527809

and LinkedIn: 

(http://linkedin.com/in/michaelparsons ), being connected and well-known to many of the important names in the bitcoin/crypto/blockchain space.

As at 28 March 2022: “Good job @BitcoinByte, you are 84 on #CryptoLeaders the toplist of Crypto & Bitcoin Influencers.” 

https://top.visitory.com/LeaderBoard/hashtag/CryptoLeaders/

https://twitter.com/VisitoryGlobal/status/1461316588624388096

It has been a very interesting and exciting 10 years and I wish everyone success in whatever they choose to do in the future in this fast moving, dynamic and engaging space.