Ep. 178: Chase Lochmiller, Co-Founder & CEO of Crusoe Energy

Today's guest is Chase Lochmiller, Co-Founder and CEO of Crusoe Energy. Crusoe is on a mission to eliminate routine flaring of natural gas and reduce the cost of cloud computing. The startup repurposes otherwise wasted energy to fuel the growing demand for computational power in the expanding digital economy. Chase is an avid tech enthusiast passionate about enabling new technologies like AI and blockchain to impact people's lives positively. Before founding Crusoe, Chase was a General Partner at Polychain Capital, a $1 billion fund investing in blockchain technologies, digital assets, and energy-intensive computing applications. Chase was previously a quantitative researcher and trader at Jump Trading and GETCO, where he developed and managed a portfolio of algorithmic trading strategies. Chase holds undergraduate degrees in math and physics from MIT and a master's degree in computer science from Stanford, specializing in artificial intelligence. I was looking forward to this episode because cryptocurrency is a controversial topic in the climate space. Chase walks me through the problem of flaring for oil and gas companies and how Crusoe Energy came to be. We also have a lively discussion about the biggest blockers for cryptocurrency related to energy consumption, how the fossil fuels companies will exist in the clean energy future, and why powering data centers is a climate issue. This episode is a must-listen, and Chase is a fantastic guest. Enjoy the show! You can find me on twitter @jjacobs22 or @mcjpod and email at [email protected], where I encourage you to share your feedback on episodes and suggestions for future topics or guests. Episode recorded September 20th, 2021