Bitcoin mining faces renewed criticism after a report revealed ERCOT pays miners to reduce activity during high electricity demand.
The perceived wastefulness of bitcoin mining has long been the focus of environmental activists. The Economist’s most recent article has sparked a new wave of criticism toward the contentious industry.
According to a well-known media outlet, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), which is in charge of controlling the state’s electric power supply, pays Bitcoin miners to avoid turning on their computers on days with high electricity demand. In August of last year, Riot Platforms received four times the amount of money from ERCOT for the simple act of reducing mining.
Robert Evans, an American author and journalist, has contended that “the primary profit from industrial Bitcoin mining in Texas is being bribed by the state not to destroy the grid.”
Critics contend that miners ought to be required to pay an increased electricity rate. “This is an unacceptable method of operation!” Bitcoin miners should be penalized for excessive electricity consumption and subject to fines, rather than compensated for their decision not to mine Bitcoin. In a social media post, Ed Zitron, CEO of the media and public relations group EZPR, expressed his thoughts.
According to Noah Smith, a former columnist for Bloomberg Opinion, there will be a significant retaliation against Bitcoin miners in Texas.
Kelsey D. Atherton, a military technology journalist, has recommended that the government should have seized the property of Bitcoin miners and disconnected them from the grid, rather than providing them with tens of millions of dollars to avoid working.
Some individuals even went so far as to label these strategies as “extortion,” alleging that mining companies are preventing the state’s power infrastructure from functioning properly.
Nathan Tankus, an economist, even likened the questionable “business model” to Enron. “Crypto has reinvented a more legally permissible version of Enron’s ghost orders which they were paid to cancel,” according to him.
