Crypto Community Criticises NYT Article on Bitcoin Mining

On April 9, The New York Times (NYT) published an article titled Real Costs of the Digital Bitcoin Race, which drew criticism from supporters of the first cryptocurrency.

The authors argue that mining is accompanied by “insatiable appetites” for electricity and consumes as much energy as all residential homes in New York.

An ESG-standard expert Daniel Batten stated that the NYT article overstates the actual use of fossil fuels in mining the asset. According to him, the piece deliberately ignores the use of renewable energy sources.

Here’s 2 quick reasons why we should have zero-trust in the NYTimes article on Bitcoin.

First have a look at the table they compiled on the top 6 miners (the full table is much longer)

I have the actual data from these miners (and the others in their table) compiled over an 8… pic.twitter.com/hDzRLBeIOT

— Daniel Batten (@DSBatten) April 10, 2023

“Currently, 26 miners in the US and Canada use more than 90% clean energy, and their numbers are growing rapidly,” the analyst added.

The article focused mainly on companies with the least backing for green mining.

Bitcoin advocate Troy Cross noted that NYT uses “marginal-emissions accounting”, but applies it selectively only to Bitcoin mining, ignoring other energy sources.

At the heart of the @nytimes story on mining is a method called “marginal-emissions accounting.”

Margin accounting is a useful tool for specific purposes, but it is ill-applied to the entire mining industry.

It is also selectively applied, only to emissions and not to generation

— Troy Cross (@thetrocro) April 10, 2023

“Emissions accounting is a useful tool for specific purposes, but it is poorly suited to the entire mining industry,” he explained.

Dennis Porter, CEO of the Satoshi Act Foundation, drew attention to a publication typo. Journalists had mixed up the city in which the United States’ main mining hub would be built.

Wow. The NYT couldn’t even take the time to fact check the town that #Bitcoin mining is taking place in.

It’s Rockdale, Texas. Not Rockland.

These are not serious people. pic.twitter.com/72ed3uIiga

— Dennis Porter (@Dennis_Porter_) April 10, 2023

“Wow. The NYT couldn’t even take the time to fact check the town where Bitcoin mining is taking place. It’s Rockdale, Texas. Not Rockland,” Porter remarked.

Editors appear to have updated this section only on April 10.

Riot Platforms’ Vice President of Research Pierre Rochard accused the publication of fabricating some data.

Lots of fictitious fractional-reserve carbon accounting. Cooking the books to fabricate emissions. pic.twitter.com/mxufWFr3RZ

— Pierre Rochard (@BitcoinPierre) April 10, 2023

Many companies have already begun pursuing green Bitcoin mining.

Cipher Mining launched a network of Bitcoin miners at a new data centre in Texas with a 40 MW capacity, powered by a wind farm. And Irish farmer Tom Campbell has learned to use cow manure for waste-free mining of the asset.

In March Greenpeace unveiled a new mascot that embodies the “dangerous levels of pollution” caused by Bitcoin mining.

Later, the artist who created the “Satoshi Skull” admitted his mistake regarding the Proof-of-Work algorithm.