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. Work begins with the decision at hand: what has changed; who is affected; what constrains action; and what evidence would make the next decision more defensible. Outputs might include:

• commissioned research;
• institutional analysis;
• horizon scanning;
• economic modeling;
• dashboard development;
• workshop design and facilitation; and
• sponsored ad hoc research working groups.

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 economic modeling, institutional analysis, evidence synthesis, scenario analysis, 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, horizon scanning, research-priority development, 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 indicator development, interview and survey research, institutional mapping, sector analysis, 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, a workshop report, 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.