Bitcoin Magazine (Maybe) Merges With Fossil Fuel Giant, Shell

Everyone is two favorites extremely good and ethical industriescryptocurrency and fossil fuels, merge. Bitcoin Magazine, owned by Bitcoin Inc., announced a new partnership with Shell on Thursday. The oil and gas company reportedly signed a two-year deal, agreeing to sponsor the crypto publication’s 2023 and 2024 Bitcoin conferences, according to a press release.

Or at least that seemed to be the case yesterday. But by Friday afternoon, Bitcoin Magazine—“the world’s first and fundamental digital currency publication” – appeared to have removed the news message from its website. The link that previously led to the announcement now leads to the Internet classic: “Error 404 – Page not found.”

But if the details of the news statement still available at other websites to be believed, the partnership grew from Shell’s toe-dip into bitcoin-mining-relevant technology. The oil company announced a new product August last year, meant to help cool the servers inside data centers. Cryptocurrency mining generally means running lots and lots of servers everything at once. It is a incredibly energy-intensive processand the possibility of data centers overheating and failing is an ever-increasing risk – esp amid heat waves caused by climate change.

So obviously, instead of directly addressing its role in exacerbating these heat waves, Shell chose to manufacture and offer a Band-Aid solution. And, instead of addressing crypto’s massive greenhouse gas emissions, one of the blockchain’s largest publications has chosen to publicly embrace the fossil fuel industry even further.

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“Having an energy giant like Shell enter the Bitcoin mining space is a huge win for Bitcoin,” David Bailey, CEO of Bitcoin Magazine, said in the press release. “The trend of companies realizing Bitcoin’s impact on their business will only grow. Shell is just one of the many large companies you’ll see implementing a bitcoin strategy over the next few years, and we’re sure they’ll be welcomed with open arms at the Bitcoin conference.”

It is not uncommon for money from fossil fuel companies to end up in some strange places. Advertisements and sponsorships from oil giants often appear in the media, even among websites, pages and newsletters climate-focused outlets. But it is doubly suspicious that such a partnership announcement appears and disappears without explanation.

Admittedly, there is many reasons why Bitcoin Magazine may have decided not to publicly associate itself with Shell. And on the flip side it is countless valid concerns Shell may be about to hold their brand at a set of crypto conferences right now. Frankly, it is difficult to say which industry will be disadvantaged by the association.

Gizmodo reached out to Bitcoin Magazine via email for details on the sponsorship and to find out why the press release was removed. However, the publication did not immediately respond. Gizmodo also tried calling the phone number associated with Bitcoin Mag in several search results. No one answered and the answering machine was not set up.

Gizmodo also reached out to Shell for more information. A company spokesperson, Curtis Smith, responded phone, but seemed unsure which one partnership we our refers to. He requested that we send an email so he can redirect our the inquiry, to which Shell has so far not responded.