Shell sponsors ‘no rules’ bitcoin event
Shell’s lubricants arm has agreed to sponsor a Miami Beach Bitcoin conference in 2023 and 2024, with the event having run into trouble in the past for failing to prevent the harassment of women.
The Bitcoin 2023 event gives those interested in cryptocurrency a chance to “celebrate another year of progress towards hyperbitcoinization”. Bitcoin Magazine CEO David Bailey said Shell entering the “bitcoin mining space is a big win for bitcoin”. The magazine organizes the conference.
However, the conference is not without controversy. Some participants have raised allegations of harassment of women at the Miami Beach event, which was held earlier this year.
Wired reported a “trail of harassment” at the Bitcoin 2022 conference. It reported that participants issued “graphic insults” and sexual references on social media. The report also noted some incidents where participants made women physically unsafe.
Wired compared the conference to a “bacchanal”, saying that the event where attendees were given the impression that it was a “place where there are no rules”. Reporters said it had “the freewheeling energy of a stag party”.
One of the women who was subjected to harassment was Rachel Siegel. The conference organizers failed to take her concerns seriously. Siegel will not return to Bitcoin 2023.
“After everything that happened, I’m genuinely scared to be around the organizers and participants, [I] want nothing to do with them,” she told Energy Voice.
Chief executive Bailey dismissed criticism of the incident at the time as “woke bullshit”. He went on to say “Don’t let a few bad apples color society”.
I absolutely despise wake bullshit, but I want to build a community where everyone feels welcome and people aren’t harassed over crap they can’t change. Someone on our team got involved with a stupid tweet from our official account. Extremely immature and I’m pissed off about it /1
— David Bailey🇵🇷 #FreeZiya_Sadr (@DavidFBailey) 13 April 2022
Improved mining
A Shell representative said that Pennzoil-Quaker State Company (Shell Lubricants) has entered into a “two-year sponsorship agreement (not a partnership agreement) with BTC Media LLC to sponsor the Bitcoin Conference in 2023 and 2024”.
Producing Bitcoin requires the use of significant – and increasing – computing power.
According to the first announcement from Bitcoin Magazine, now deleted, Shell officials will attend the conference and talk about improving bitcoin mining through the use of lubricants and cooling products.
Shell declined to comment specifically on allegations of harassment and impropriety at the Bitcoin 2022 conference.
Big win
Bailey said Shell was “just one of the many big name companies” working on a bitcoin strategy over the next few years. “We are sure they will be welcomed with open arms at the Bitcoin conference.”
The Shell official played down the extent of the company’s involvement.
© Provided by Shell / Bitcoin Maga“At this time, Shell Lubricants has not invested in any cryptocurrency, but manufactures immersion coolants available for data centers. A previous media release from Bitcoin magazine mischaracterized our involvement with cryptocurrency,” she said.
Shell produces lubricants using its gas-to-liquids (GTL) technology. The company says it designed its Shell Immersion Cooling Fluid S5 X for liquid cooling of computer servers.
Shell Lubricants’ Darin Gonzalez said data servers can cut energy costs by using immersion cooling.
BTC Media’s Brandon Green said the coolants helped in the “heat exchange process for ASIC mining”. He did not comment on the questions surrounding sexual harassment.
A researcher at the University of New Mexico in September criticized bitcoin production. Bitcoin mining, he said, was “getting dirtier and more harmful to the climate over time. In short, Bitcoin’s environmental footprint is moving in the wrong direction.”
In 2020, the university said, bitcoin consumed 75.4 TWh of electricity. This is more than Austria or Portugal.
Amidst the conference’s misogyny issue and the environmental impact of bitcoin, cryptocurrencies are struggling.
Buffeted by macroeconomic forces, and the recent implosion of FTX and Sam Bankman-Fried, bitcoin has fallen to $16,500. In November 2021, bitcoin was trading at $61,543.
