Advisory services

FIR helps organizations and individuals make decisions where Bitcoin, AI, energy and compute systems, and other fast-changing technologies are moving faster than the evidence, policy categories, and organizational routines used to govern them. Possible tasks and outputs include:

• reviews of technical reports and research articles;
• commissioned research;
• horizon scanning;
• economic modeling; and
• coordinating & running sponsored ad hoc research working groups.

Review

FIR conducts reviews of technical and academic research papers - your own products, or evaluations of government reports and academic articles for which you may want an independent assessment of credibility.

Engagements can be for a single report or bodies of evidence (a detailed summary of the different schools of thought in play, and the credibility of the evidence they draw on, for a topic such as Bitcoin mining emissions or price forecasting; rapid response critiques of the evidence base used for news reports).

Research, modeling, and decision support

FIR prepares models and reports, ranging from policy briefing notes to ready-for-peer-review working papers, for organizations making decisions about Bitcoin, AI, energy and compute systems, economic adaptation, and governance.

Engagements can combine literature reviews, modeling, policy analysis, evidence synthesis, and decision-support tools tailored to the problem at hand.

Bitcoin research and advisory

Bitcoin is FIR's most established technology-specific research area. Work spans Bitcoin economics, adoption, custody, mining and energy systems, protocol and institutional governance, public policy, financial inclusion, and the wider consequences of digital scarcity.

Engagements may include commissioned research, economic and policy analysis, institutional assessment, information gap analysis, horizon scanning, and decision-support models for organizations operating in or assessing the Bitcoin ecosystem.

AI and emerging technologies

AI is changing research, work, infrastructure, and public decision-making. FIR develops research on AI, institutional capacity, economic adaptation, measurement, and the governance of fast technological change.

Engagements can include interview and survey research, policy analysis, and models, and dashboards that help organizations track changing conditions over time.

Horizon scanning and priority setting

Horizon-scanning exercises identify emerging signals, information gaps, and questions that deserve sustained attention before they become urgent. They can combine expert interviews, structured evidence review, research-question development, and methods for comparing priorities under uncertainty.

Outputs may include research agendas, priority questions, monitoring frameworks, or structured assessments of emerging risks and opportunities.

Workshops and deliberative design

Some problems involve genuine disagreement among participants with different responsibilities, evidence, and practical constraints. FIR designs and facilitates workshops that identify where agreement is possible, where uncertainty remains, and what should happen next.

Outputs may include a research agenda, decision criteria, or a documented account of competing views.

Start with the decision

A short introductory call can establish whether the issue is suited to commissioned research, a workshop, ongoing advisory support, research collaboration, or independent research funding.

Or email regarding research, advisory, speaking, or collaboration inquiries.