About

Digiconomist is a platform that is dedicated to exposing the unintended consequences of digital trends, typically from an economic perspective. Tech trends often open up a world of possibilities, but also bring their own unique challenges. It’s easy to get lost in the optimism that accompanies those new possibilities,  but it’s important to maintain a healthy dose of realism. New technologies are rarely perfect, as illustrated by the gigantic environmental impact that the cryptocurrency Bitcoin had (as a result of its mining mechanism). Through the (widely cited) Bitcoin Energy Consumption Index and peer-reviewed academic papers, Digiconomist contributed to revealing this specific issue.

Founder

Digiconomist was created at the start of 2014 by Alex de Vries (born 1989) as a hobby project. With a background in financial economics, many years of experience in data and risk analysis at some of the leading institutions in banking and accounting, and a special interest for emerging technologies, the idea was to explore new perspectives in the cryptocurrency ecosystem and beyond. To date this continues to be at the heart of what Digiconomist stands for. Digiconomist remains a sole proprietorship registered in the Netherlands with company registration number 80086381. The collective body of research by Alex de Vries is also part his PhD candidacy at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, the Netherlands.