Crypto stakeholders criticize New York Times for ‘hit piece’ on Bitcoin mining

Several crypto stakeholders have criticized New York Times April 10 report on Bitcoin (BTC) mining, claiming that it does not reflect events in the industry.

What the NYT wrote

According to the report, Bitcoin mining uses as much electricity as a small town. The report added that the activities do not generate economic value and taxpayers have to pay miners to shut down during periods of energy crisis.

The New York Times specifically identified Bitdeer mining and said the company earned over $18 million to shut down its miners for four days during a winter storm in Texas.

In total, the New York Times identified 34 Bitcoin mining facilities in the United States and estimated that they use more than 3,900 megawatts of electricity combined. It added that they cause 16.4 million tonnes of carbon emissions annually.

The traditional medium noted, “each of them 34 operations the one identified uses at least 30,000 times as much electricity as the average US home.”

Crypto Community Criticism Report; questions NYT data

The report has drawn serious criticism from crypto stakeholders, with most questioning New York’s emissions data and how it was obtained.

The New York Times said it relied on “both public and confidential records, as well as the results of studies it commissioned.”

Pierre Rochard, the VP of Research at Riot Platforms, so:

“[There are] lots of fictitious carbon accounting with fractional reserves. Make the books to make emissions.”

Riot is one of the BTC miners mentioned in the NYT piece. According to the report, the miner has the most power-intensive operation in the country.

Chief Strategy Officer at the Human Rights Foundation, Alex Gladstein, too so the piece was packed with misinformation.

According to Gladstein, the NYT deliberately chose not to explain what Bitcoin does, so readers will not see the value and consider the energy consumption a waste.

In addition, ClimateTech investor Daniel Batten noted that the NYT article deliberately overstated the fossil fuel use of the top six miners on the list by an average of 81.7%. It did this by “using special accounting rules reserved for Bitcoin miners.” The particular method used is called “marginal emissions accounting.”

“We have evidence of significantly overestimated real percentages of fossil fuel emissions, and are using overwhelmingly incomplete datasets to support a thesis.”

Batten added that the report also cherry-picked its data, selecting only 2 of the 26 US and Canadian miners that use 90% sustainable energy. Furthermore, even in the case of miners who mainly use renewable energy, the report focused on their least renewable energy supported areas.

Satoshi Act Fund CEO Dennis Porter described the report as a hit piece and noted that the NYT even got the name of the town where the Bitdeer mine is located in Texas wrong.

Meanwhile, this is not the first time the NYT has come under heavy criticism from the crypto industry. For example, the media was heavily criticized for covering Sam Bankman-Fried and his fallen crypto empire.