The New York Times has as soon as once more printed an inflammatory article about Bitcoin mining stuffed with misinformation. Although main Bitcoin researchers have been fast to refute the knowledge and knowledge as biased and false, the article stays on-line in an effort to push BTC into the nook of a local weather sinner.
One of the main Bitcoin environmentalists and researchers, Daniel Batten, has picked apart the New York Times piece and knowledge to the core, revealing that the article lacks any journalistic integrity. As Batten mentioned at size on Twitter, the mainstream publication solely cherry-picked the information that match its “Bitcoin is bad” leitmotif.
Remarkably, this isn’t the primary time the Bitcoin and crypto neighborhood has been enraged by The New York Times. The publication was closely criticized late final yr for publishing a “breathless love letter” to Sam Bankman-Fried, though his billion-dollar fraud had lengthy since been uncovered.
Bitcoin Activist Sets The Record Straight
For Bitcoin mining trade insiders, it’s already apparent at first look that the NY Times article can’t be trusted. The NY Times’ desk of high BTC miners is grossly inaccurate, as reported by Batten, who collected precise knowledge over an 8-month interval.
According to Batten, the NY Times article overstates the emission ranges of mining corporations Riot, Atlas, Cipher Mining, US Bitcoin Corp, Rhodium and Bitdeer by a median of 81.7%. Furthermore, there may be ample proof that the NY Times has cherry-picked knowledge massively to assist its thesis.
For instance, there are at present 26 mining corporations within the US and Canada that use greater than 90% sustainable power. Of these, the NY Times included solely two in its knowledge (Cleanspark and Terawulf). Within these two, the journalists targeted on the least renewable energy-based websites and uncared for these which might be predominantly renewable.
“This is inception-like cherry-picking: cherry-picking within cherry-picking,” mentioned Batten, who additional says that the “article is full of such transgressions of genuine objective reporting.”
Further, Batten accuses the publication of not saying any optimistic phrase concerning the “demand response program,” wherein Bitcoin miners play a necessary position for grid operators by with the ability to throttle their energy consumption on brief discover throughout grid instabilities. Batten says:
The NY Times article makes an attempt to create the impression that Bitcoin miners are costing residents cash by taking a minimize of “demand response” income. By witholding context, their angle is designed to create ethical outrage for one thing that’s essential to grid stability.
But that’s not all. According to Batten, there are a complete of 9 indicators that reveal the bias of the alleged investigation. Among them is the truth that accountable folks from the power trade shouldn’t have their say. In the previous, they’ve repeatedly acknowledged that BTC Mining promotes the growth of renewable energies and stabilizes the grid.
TEXAS GOVERNOR: “#Bitcoin mining is good for the grid.” pic.twitter.com/WgFQPg6Xtj
— Dennis Porter (@Dennis_Porter_) November 27, 2022
“No objective assessment of the consumer-benefit and renewable operator benefit of establishing a floor price for all variable renewable energy so that renewable operation can scale faster (as it has at >4% per year in ERCOT since 2021),” Batten added.
Moreover, there may be additionally no goal reference to earlier experiences (together with CNBC) on how BTC mining stabilized grids throughout winter storms. Data from Lancium and ERCOT community operators confirming that is nowhere to be discovered.
Likewise, no goal proof may be discovered that BTC mining has a built-in financial incentive to be a non-competing client of electrical energy.
An govt at mining firm Riot Platforms echoed Batten’s criticism. Vice President Pierre Rochard countered the New York Times to set the file straight about misinformation about his firm within the article.
According to the NY Times, Riot’s mining operation in Rockdale, Texas, makes use of about the identical quantity of electrical energy as the following 300,000 properties, “making it the most electricity-intensive Bitcoin mining operation in America.”
Rochard known as on the NY Times to reveal the methodology and simulation to disclose how the information was calculated.
NYTimes couldn’t be bothered to fact-check the primary sentence of their #Bitcoin mining article.
They don’t care about their credibility, they only need to defraud their readers into believing falsehoods. https://t.co/06lpNjRiGg
— Pierre Rochard (@BitcoinPierre) April 10, 2023
As Bitcoinist reported, Daniel Batten only recently printed a brand new analysis stating that the primary power supply of BTC mining is hydropower, which accounts for 23% of the overall power. Fossil fuels have decreased by a complete of 6.2% per yr since January 2020. Overall, Bitcoin is probably the most sustainable trade on this planet.
At press time, the Bitcoin value stood at $28,282, nonetheless consolidation beneath the important thing resistance space at $28,600.
Featured picture from iStock, chart from TradingView.com
