Crypto enthusiasts follow the New York Times for its BTC mining report – Cryptopolitan
Crypto misinformation has taken root in today’s reporting. In recent times, Mainstream Media houses have come under pressure for false reports about the crypto ecosystem. You could be forgiven for thinking that these houses took note and planned a different reporting strategy. They didn’t. Once again, the crypto community has voiced its displeasure with fabricated data.
New York Times horrifying BTC mining report
The latest report on Bitcoin mining by The New York Times, titled “The Real-World Costs of the Digital Race for Bitcoin,” has angered many BTC advocates. A number of Bitcoin advocates criticized certain aspects of the report on Twitter, calling it “cherry-picked data.”
The New York Times article describes Bitcoin mining as a “gray appetite” and claims that Bitcoin mining uses as much energy as all the homes in New York City. The crypto community quickly criticized the New York Times for the article.
Bitcoin mining has always been a contentious issue, often fueled by erroneous information spread by mainstream publications. Every other year, mainstream publications have spread articles claiming that Bitcoin mining would be environmentally disastrous.
There are ongoing efforts to replace Bitcoin’s mining consensus with proof-of-stake. However, Bitcoin advocates continue to fight misinformation and set the record straight. The majority of Bitcoin was mined in China until June 2021. Afterwards, it expelled Bitcoin operations, at least temporarily, citing their energy consumption as one of the reasons. Shortly afterwards, the USA became the world leader in the industry.
At first glance, an executive at Riot Platform criticized The New York Times for the recent publication of incorrect information about Bitcoin mining. Shortly thereafter, other members of the industry joined him in his criticism of the media.
Pierre Rochard, vice president of Riot Platforms, a mining company, is asking that the publication make its methodology and simulation open source so that others can observe how the data was obtained.
According to him, the methodology of the research was the primary concern. According to him, there was “a lot of fictitious carbon accounting with fractions” and “making the books to make emissions.” The New York Times claimed to have conducted a market simulation.
The New York Times identified 34 large-scale mining operations using both public and confidential records and commissioned studies to establish “the most comprehensive estimates to date of the largest operations’ electricity use and the ripple effects of their voracious demand.”
The article made several references to Riot Platforms. The New York Times reported that the mining operation in Rockdale, Texas consumed about the same amount of electricity as 300,000 nearby homes, “making it the most energy-intensive Bitcoin mining operation in the United States.”
In addition, Daniel Batten, a Bitcoin environmental, social and governance (ESG) analyst, highlighted what he considered to be two important cases of cherry-picking data, as well as the mining industry’s neglect of increased use of renewable energy.
Batten stated that the NYT article grossly exaggerates the actual fossil fuel consumption of BTC miners by an average of 81.7%. He added that the report was “supported by overwhelmingly incomplete data sets.”
Dennis Porter, executive director of the Satoshi Act Fund, noted that the New York Times article made a mistake in its initial reporting by identifying the wrong Texas city as the site of a Bitcoin mining facility. The error was later corrected by the publication.
New York Times criticized for SBF Piece
This is not the first time the New York Times has angered the crypto community. The publication’s “breathless love letter” to Sam Bankman-Fried drew widespread criticism. The argument at the time was that the New York Times had published a glowing profile of the disgraced former FTX boss.
Several prominent figures in the industry, including Brian Armstrong, Jesse Powell, Zooko Wilcox and Edward Snowden, were among the critics of that article. If this mining story catches on in the crypto community, the New York Times may have to face another salvo from the crypto community.
Recently, media outlets have been criticized for their coverage of the crypto industry. The crypto market and Binance Coin in particular took a hit last week after rumors circulated that Interpol had issued an arrest warrant for Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao.
The resulting FUD caused some concern in the community. Zhao and others strongly refuted such rumors and urged individuals to be cautious about their sources of information. As a crypto flag bearer, CZ has been in a DeFi R&D war for some time. However, he has managed to handle it to the best of his ability till date. Many in the FinTech sector have said that “journalism is dead.”
