The New York Times’ campaign against bitcoin rages on. Even though this time they had the perfect opportunity to write a balanced article, they didn’t. The author reports one positive bitcoin mining story after another, while keeping a snooty attitude and suggesting it’s all a PR move. The title summarizes the New York Times’ stance, “Bitcoin Miners Are Looking to Make Theirself Eco-Friendly.”
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Before we get into it, a quick story. The foremost expert in bitcoin’s energy consumption, Nic Carter, published an exhaustive report on mining. It included hard data showing how China mined hydropower. It was largely ignored by mainstream media. The party line was that we couldn’t trust China’s statistics. China had probably been a burning coal.
Let’s fast-forward to last month. China banned bitcoin mining a while ago and bitcoin’s hashrate relocated, recovered, while the network functioned perfectly throughout. Most of China’s mining industry relocated to green energy-abundant countries. The New York Times published what? An article called “China Banished Cryptocurrencies. Now, ‘Mining’ Is Even Dirtier,” that claims that Chinese miners were using hydropower energy and thus used cleaner energy.
That’s the level of propaganda we’re dealing with.
The New York Times’s Take on Bitcoin Mining.
The article starts by featuring Argo Blockchain, the company is building a new facility that “would be fueled mostly by wind and solar energy.” They even quote Peter Wall, Argo CEO, saying. “This is Bitcoin mining nirvana. You look off into the distance and you’ve got your renewable power.” What could be wrong with that?
A mere two paragraphs later, The New York Times launches lies and embarrassing numbers.
“A single Bitcoin transaction now requires more than 2,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity, or enough energy to power the average American household for 73 days, researchers estimate.”
As it turns out, Digiconomist is a debunked researcher, who also happens to be an employee at the Dutch Central Bank. Then, they quote the malicious study from the intro.
“The Bitcoin network’s use of green energy sources also dropped to an average of 25 percent in August 2021 from 42 percent in 2020. According to the industry, its average renewable usage is more than 60 percent. That’s partly a result of China’s crackdown, which cut off a source of cheap hydropower.”
And quote Alex de Vries, one of the study’s authors, being completely off the mark. “What a miner is going to do if they want to maximize the profit is put their machine wherever it can run the entire day.” WHAT? The cheapest energy source is the best way to maximize profits. Their biggest expense is energy. The cheapest source possible is energy that’s currently being wasted. That’s the situation.
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There are more bad news stories than feel-good stories
The New York Times even quotes Paul Prager, TeraWulf CEO, saying “Everyone I talk to now is talking about carbon neutrality. The language has absolutely changed.” And then, the newspaper spreads the good news.
“TeraWulf, has pledged to run cryptocurrency mines using more than 90 percent zero-carbon energy. It has two projects in the works — a retired coal plant in upstate New York fueled by hydropower, and a nuclear-powered facility in Pennsylvania.”
All of these stories do not get celebrated. Remember the article’s title, they are cynically presented as PR stunts. Then, it´s time for Sangha Systems, who “repurposed an old steel mill in the town of Hennepin. Spencer Marr (an ex-lawyer) is the man who runs Sangha. He says that he started Sangha to encourage clean energy. But about half the Hennepin operation’s power comes from fossil fuels.”
The New York Times Shuts The Loop
That’s the worst example that the New York Times could find. A person who “founded the company to promote clean energy” but had to make a compromise to start his business. For the end of the article, we are referred back to Argo Blockchain by the author. He attempts to draw something like it. Apparently, the CEO “can’t guarantee that Argo’s new center will have no carbon footprint. That would require bypassing the grid and buying energy directly from a renewable power company.”
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Then they quote him once more. “A lot of those renewable energy producers are still a little bit skeptical of cryptocurrency. The crypto miners don’t have the credit profiles to sign 10- or 15-year deals.”
So, Argo is really trying but it’s not possible at the moment for understandable reasons. The incentives align for the industry to move towards a more sustainable future. New York Times, you got it. You got it.
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