Bitcoin backlash against NYT continues with #StopThePresses
Mining
As beforehand coated by Protos, a number of senior journalists on the New York Instances (NYT) printed a critique of Bitcoin’s proof-of-work (PoW) consensus. Sadly, the article contained various factual and rhetorical errors, and inside hours, it was ratioed on Twitter with extra likes for a remark stating these errors than NYT’s authentic tweet.
Hashpower secures Bitcoin’s $550 billion monetary system. And like all monetary system — whether or not it’s used on military-protected commerce routes, banking conglomerates, or information center-intensive cost applied sciences — electrical energy use is unavoidable.
Bitcoin miners procure and pay for electrical energy in world markets. And like all electrical energy shopper, they might use their buy for any authorized exercise: garments dryers, vacation lights, water fountains, or Bitcoin mining. They pay for electrical energy and use it.
The factor is, @nytimes wastepaper enterprise doesn’t HAVE to break the atmosphere. It doesn’t HAVE to hurt native communities with air pollution. They might #StopThePresses 🛑 & scale back environmental hurt by 99%.
Our planet, folks, & timber should be a precedence over income.#NYTimesUp pic.twitter.com/8ubk5ChKex
— #StopThePresses (@NYTimesUp) April 18, 2023
Learn extra: Opinion: The New York Instances appears to have an actual downside with Bitcoin
On condition that that is the case, the NYT’s article has introduced its critics with a gaping open aim. Certainly, relatively than persuading people who Bitcoin’s mining is nothing greater than wasteful air pollution, it has been countered by a viral #StopThePresses social media marketing campaign demanding that the NYT stop its wasteful printing of newspapers.
The troll is elegant
The Instances depends closely on its bodily newspaper subscriptions, largely from older readers. These subscribers desire to burn timber, use ink, and provides a go to huge carbon-emitting supply operations relatively than learn the information on their telephone, pill, or pc.
Previous to the NYT’s critique of an business it disapproves of, no one was demanding that it stop printing newspapers. Certainly, shoppers have an affordable proper to pay for printed newspapers in the identical method that Bitcoiners have the fitting to make use of electrical energy to safe the world’s largest decentralized blockchain.
Sadly, the blue contact paper has now been lit and the backlash over the NYT’s anti-Bitcoin mining stance is in full swing throughout social media. Hashtags like #StopThePresses on Twitter are offering a extremely seen dwelling for the onslaught of anti-NYT memes.
