Pluralistic: "Carbon neutral" Bitcoin operation founded by coal plant operator wasn't actually carbon neutral (09 Aug 2024)

doctorow · 9 August 2024 12:46

Originally published at: Pluralistic: “Carbon neutral” Bitcoin operation founded by coal plant operator wasn’t actually carbon neutral (09 Aug 2024) – Pluralistic: Daily links from Cory Doctorow

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"Carbon neutral" Bitcoin operation founded by coal plant operator wasn't actually carbon neutral: Score one for Hunterbrook Media.
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Four men in loud checked suits stand before a belching coal plant; the center two hold a glittering Bitcoin with a vivid green tree sprouting from it. They wear green domino masks. Behind them are ranks of 19th century child coal-miners.

"Carbon neutral" Bitcoin operation founded by coal plant operator wasn't actually carbon neutral (permalink)

Water is wet, and a Bitcoin thing turned out to be a scam. Why am I writing about a Bitcoin scam? Two reasons:

I. It's also a climate scam; and

II. The journalists who uncovered it have a unique business-model.

Here's the scam. Terawulf is a publicly traded company that purports to do "green" Bitcoin mining. Now, cryptocurrency mining is one of the most gratuitously climate-wrecking activities we have. Mining Bitcoin is an environmental crime on par with opening a brunch place that only serves Spotted Owl omelets.

Despite Terawulf's claim to be carbon-neutral, it is not. It plugs into the NY power grid and sucks up farcical quantities of energy produced from fossil fuel sources. The company doesn't buy even buy carbon credits (carbon credits are a scam, but buying carbon credits would at least make its crimes nonfraudulent):

https://pluralistic.net/2023/10/31/carbon-upsets/#big-tradeoff

Terawulf is a scam from top to bottom. Its NY state permit application promises not to pursue cryptocurrency mining, a thing it was actively trumpeting its plan to do even as it filed that application.

The company has its roots in the very dirtiest kinds of Bitcoin mining. Its top execs (including CEO Paul Prager) were involved with Beowulf Energy LLC, a company that convinced struggling coal plant operators to keep operating in order to fuel Bitcoin mining rigs. There's evidence that top execs at Terawulf, the "carbon neutral" Bitcoin mining op, are also running Beowulf, the coal Bitcoin mining op.

This is a very profitable scam. Prager owns a "small village" in Maryland, with more that 20 structures, including a private gas station for his Ferrari collection (he also has a five bedroom place on Fifth Ave). More than a third of Terawulf's earnings were funneled to Beowulf. Terawulf also leases its facilities from a company that Prager owns 99.9% of, and Terawulf has *showered * that company in its stock.

So here we are, a typical Bitcoin story: scammers lying like hell, wrecking the planet, and getting indecently rich. The guy's even spending his money like an asshole. So far, so normal.

But what's interesting about this story is where it came from: Hunterbrook Media, an investigative news outlet that's funded by a short seller – an investment firm that makes bets that companies' share prices are likely to decline. They stand to make a ton of money if the journalists they hire find fraud in the companies they investigate:

https://hntrbrk.com/terawulf/

It's an amazing source of class disunity among the investment class:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/04/08/money-talks/#bullshit-walks

As the icing on the cake, Prager and Terawulf are pivoting to AI training. Because of course they are.

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The neverending griefing discussion https://www.raphkoster.com/2024/08/07/the-neverending-griefing-discussion/
The Ghost and the Golem https://www.choiceofgames.com/ghost-and-the-golem/ (h/t Ben Rosenbaum)
Warner Bros. Discovery Says Its TV Channels Are Worth $9 Billion Less https://www.indiewire.com/news/business/warner-bros-discovery-says-tv-channels-worth-9-billion-less-1235033624/ (h/t @jgriffaz_)

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This day in history (permalink)

#5yrsago Bernie Sanders killed it on Joe Rogan https://jacobin.com/2019/08/bernie-sanders-joe-rogan-experience-podcast/

#5yrsago Whatsapp, Slack, Skype and apps based on popular Electron framework vulnerable to backdoor attacks https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2019/08/skype-slack-other-electron-based-apps-can-be-easily-backdoored/

#5yrsago Billionaire who gave Jeffrey Epstein power of attorney in order to manage his finances says Epstein stole “vast sums of money” https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/07/business/wexner-epstein.html

#5yrsago Baking bread from dormant, 4,500-year-old yeast extracted from Egyptian bread-making ceramics https://twitter.com/SeamusBlackley/status/1158264819503419392

#5yrsago Monsanto ran a psy-ops war-room to discredit journalists and spy on Neil Young https://www.theguardian.com/business/2019/aug/07/monsanto-fusion-center-journalists-roundup-neil-young

#5yrsago Wisconsin commissioned an independent report on how to fix the Foxconn deal. Result: it can’t be done. https://www.theverge.com/2019/8/6/20747166/wisconsin-foxconn-deal-state-report-lcd-factory-innovation-centers

#5yrsago As New York State’s shareholder suit against Big Oil for climate denial proceeds, Exxonmobil caught intimidating witnesses https://insideclimatenews.org/news/09082019/exxon-climate-fraud-investigation-witness-pressure-investors-new-york-attorney-general/

#5yrsago After student arrested for carrying laser-pointers, Hong Kong protesters stage “stargazing” laser-protest https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-asia-49280030

#5yrsago Warshipping: attack a target network by shipping a cellular-enabled wifi cracker to a company’s mail-room https://techcrunch.com/2019/08/06/warshipping-hackers-ship-exploits-mail-room/

#5yrsago Billions on the line as Facebook loses appeal over violating Illinois facial recognition law https://www.theverge.com/2019/8/8/20792326/facebook-facial-recognition-appeals-decision-damages-payment-court

#1yrago Private equity plunderers want to buy Simon & Schuster https://pluralistic.net/2023/08/08/vampire-capitalism/#kkr

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Latest books (permalink)

The Bezzle: a sequel to "Red Team Blues," about prison-tech and other grifts, Tor Books (US), Head of Zeus (UK), February 2024 (the-bezzle.org). Signed, personalized copies at Dark Delicacies (https://www.darkdel.com/store/p3062/Available_Feb_20th%3A_The_Bezzle_HB.html#/).
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Enshittification: a nonfiction book about platform decay. Today's progress: 766 words (35444 words total).
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Spill, a Little Brother short story about pipeline protests. FORTHCOMING ON TOR.COM

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