Appeals court rejects Sam Bankman-Fried’s bid for release
The court cited Sam Bankman-Fried’s alleged witness tampering as the main grounds for rejecting his release bid.
The New York Times’ Skewed Bitcoin Mining Expose Reveals Blatant Bias
Decentralized Media Via Web3: A Solution to Bias and Trust Issues in News?
Ashley Rindsberg – a speaker at CoinDesk’s Consensus festival – argues that the New York Times has a track-record of dangerous misreporting. Is “DeMe” the answer to what skews to the media?
What Paul Krugman gets wrong about crypto
Cryptocurrency has evolved over the last decade, but Krugman is still hung up on Bitcoin’s 2008 white paper.
Meta ‘powering through’ with Metaverse plans despite doubts — Zuckerberg
Billions of dollars have been poured into Meta’s virtual world with little return on investment, but CEO Mark Zuckerberg says he is holding fast.
Legal professionals astonished as SBF admits failures, apologizes 12 times in interview
The former FTX CEO has offered multiple apologies and admitted failings at least a dozen times during the one-hour interview.
From the NY Times to WaPo, the media is fawning over Bankman-Fried
Mainstream media outlets just can’t seem to stop drooling over the disgraced FTX founder.
Malice Or Ignorance? The New York Times Keeps Printing Lies About Bitcoin Mining
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 Want to Recast Themselves as Eco-Friendly.”
Related Reading | Valkyrie Bitcoin Mining ETF “WGMI” Approved For Nasdaq Listing
Before we get into it, a quick story. The foremost expert in bitcoin’s energy consumption, Nic Carter, published an exhaustive report on mining. Among other things, it contained hard data that showed to what extent China was mining using hydropower energy. Mainstream media largely ignored it. The party line was that we couldn’t trust China’s statistics. And, that China was probably burning cole.
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. What did the New York Times post? 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.
What Did The New York Times Say About Bitcoin Mining This Time?
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?
Two paragraphs later, the New York Times starts pushing 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.”
Of course, those ridiculous claims come from Digiconomist, a widely debunked researcher who happens to be an employee of the Dutch Central Bank. And then, they blatantly quote the malicious study mentioned in 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. (The industry has argued that its average renewable use is closer to 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? To maximize profit, a miner is going to find the cheapest source of energy possible. Energy is their biggest cost. The cheapest source possible is energy that’s currently being wasted. That’s the situation.
BTC price chart for 03/26/2022 on Forex.com | Source: BTC/USD on TradingView.com
More Feel-Good Stories Framed As Bad News
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.”
None of these stories are 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. Sangha is run by a former lawyer, Spencer Marr, who says he founded the company to promote clean energy. But about half the Hennepin operation’s power comes from fossil fuels.”
The New York Times Closes 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. To close the article, the author brings us back to Argo Blockchain and tries to pull something similar. 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.”
Related Reading | Biden Loves Intel’s Plan To Produce Semiconductors. What About Bitcoin Mining?
And then, they quote him again. “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. And the whole industry is moving to a greener path because the incentives are aligned that way. Got it, New York Times. Got it.
Featured Image by tacskooo on Pixabay | Charts by TradingView
Nifty News: NYT says NFTs in pandemic-fueled bubble, Polkamon eggs produce $1M gas …
NYT likens the NFT bubble to the plague induced “tulip mania” of the 1600s, Polkamon NFTs generate more than $1 million in gas fees, and a man fails to sell 50% of a house as an NFT
NYT Reports Allegations of ‘Racist or Discriminatory’ Treatment of Employees at Coinbase
The NYT critique of Coinbase’s internal diversity policies quotes former employees who complain of “racist or discriminatory” treatment.
Coinbase Preemptively Rebuts Unpublished New York Times Expose
The letter pushes back at an unpublished article Coinbase says will allege Black employees had “negative experiences” while with the firm.
‘I Failed Terribly at Keeping My Identity Secret’: Scott Alexander on the Value of Pseudonymity
A New York Times decision to name Scott Alexander, the author of Slate Star Codex, raises questions about who deserves pseudonyms, journalism in 2020, and where we place value when it comes to news stories.
‘I Failed Terribly at Keeping My Identity Secret’: Scott Alexander on the Value of Pseudonymity
A New York Times decision to name Scott Alexander, the author of Slate Star Codex, raises questions about who deserves pseudonyms, journalism in 2020, and where we place value when it comes to news stories.
New York Times Confirms It’s Using Blockchain to Combat Fake News
The New York Times is testing blockchain solutions to authenticate news photos in partnership with IBM Garage.