Tag: Criticism

BTC Mining Report Draws Criticism

by Blockchain News

The New York Times’ recent report on Bitcoin mining, “The Real-World Costs of the Digital Race for Bitcoin,” has been met with criticism from BTC proponents. The article claims that Bitcoin mining has a “voracious” appetite and uses as much energy as all residences in New York City. However, some analysts have pointed out that the article cherry-picks data and neglects the increasing use of renewable energy in the mining sector.

Bitcoin environmental, social, and governance (ESG) analyst, Daniel Batten, said that the article exaggerates the fossil fuel use of BTC miners and uses incomplete datasets to support its thesis. He also noted that some Bitcoin miners in the United States and Canada use 90% sustainable energy to fuel their mining activities, but the NYT article focuses on the sites least backed by renewable energy.

Bitcoin proponent, Troy Cross, criticized the article for using “marginal emissions accounting” and selectively applying it only for carbon emissions, not generation. Dennis Porter, CEO of the Satoshi Act Fund, also noted an error in the article’s initial reporting, where the wrong town was named for a BTC mining facility in Texas.

BTC mining firm Riot’s vice president of research, Pierre Rochard, accused the NYT of using “fictitious fractional-reserve carbon accounting” and “cooking the books to fabricate emissions.” Meanwhile, another Twitter user believed that the article was fear-mongering.

Despite the debate on Bitcoin mining’s energy consumption, it remains significant for the blockchain. Mining is used to verify transactions, make it decentralized, and add a layer of security. According to the Bitcoin Mining Council’s Q4 2022 report, the Bitcoin network is already a leader in sustainable energy use, with 58.9% of its energy coming from renewable sources.

While some mainstream outlets criticize Bitcoin mining for its environmental impact, many BTC proponents see these reports as hit pieces and offer opposing perspectives. Some are even campaigning to change Bitcoin’s mining consensus to the more environmentally friendly proof-of-stake. Despite the criticism, Bitcoin mining’s importance to the blockchain makes it an essential area for continued development and research into sustainable energy solutions.

Source

Tagged : / / / / /

Vitalik deluged after asking for the ‘most unhinged’ criticisms about him

by Cointelegraph

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin asked for, and received in spades, examples of “the craziest and most unhinged criticisms” of him on Twitter and elsewhere.

Buterin’s lighthearted request came in a Jan. 14 tweet in which he shared some of his own favorite criticisms and revealed the Ethereum (ETH) creator’s lighter side. More than 500 people responded in the first fifteen minutes, although most were in support of Buterin. At the time of writing his tweet had over 1,200 comments.

Among the four criticisms Buterin posted was one from a user that said he “Looks like an alien crackhead.”

Vitalik’s father Dmitry recalled a fairly unhinged conspiracy theory that he was actually a Russian secret agent and that Russian President Vladimir Putin was behind the creation of Ethereum.

Vitalik himself brought up how “2 different Reddit trolls!” had compared him to Hitler back in 2017 and shared a screenshot of the comparison in a tweet.

Ethereum was an early example of an initial coin offerings (ICO) in the crypto space and has been one of the most successful with over 778,000% in gains since 2015. But to this day it is criticized for being a “centralized premine.” One user cited an unhinged take frequently seen during the 2017 ICO craze shows the “spider Vitalik ponzi”  and depicts Vitalik as the spider in charge of the Ethereum ponzi web.

Not everything was a criticism, some users took the opportunity to share their favorite memes, including this joke that leans heavily on a pun.

Other users dusted off the classics, including this meme shared in a comment displaying an aged Buterin with a headline from a hypothetical news show reading “Breaking News: Ethereum 2.0 finally ships.” Given how old the meme is, it’s hard to say there isn’t some truth to criticism over the length of time Eth2 is taking to ship. 

Related: Industry players respond to Vitalik Buterin’s thoughts on cross-chain ecosystems

While the Twitter thread was about all the crazy criticisms Buterin has received over the years, most users who responded did so in jest. And ConsenSys alumnus John Lilic pointed out that despite all the criticism of Buterin, both real and comedic, he has ”been working to make the space better since almost day zero.”

Source

Tagged : / /

‘Ecological nightmare’ backlash forces ArtStation to drop NFT plans

by Cointelegraph

Prominent online art portfolio platform ArtStation has caved in to pressure from artists and environmentally-conscious users hours after announcing a series of non-fungible token, or NFT, drops from several notable artists.

On Mar. 9, the platform announced the program was scheduled to begin today and featured works from artists including Halo Infinite art director Nicolas “Sparth” Bouvier, retired NASA astronaut Nicole Stott, Assassin’s Creed franchise art director Raphael Lacoste, painter Craig Mullins, and Magic: The Gathering illustrator Alena Aenami.

Following a furious bombardment of criticism, all mentions of the announcement were pulled down and replaced with a short message on the website stating that “In light of the critical reception on social media regarding NFTs, it’s clear that now is not the right time for NFTs on ArtStation.” Despite the setback, the firm didn’t shy entirely away from the technology, hinting at its potential future use:

“We are very sorry for all the negative emotions this has caused. Despite our attempts to validate our approach, we clearly made a mistake and admit fault. It was our bad. We feel that NFTs are a transformative technology that can make significant, positive change for digital artists.”

Dapper Labs founder and CEO Roham Gharegozlou stated the decision to cave in was “short-sighted” adding that “for one, blocks will get mined anyway — for the other, the criticism basically doesn’t apply to proof of stake blockchains like Flow Blockchain [used by NBA Top Shot].”

ArtStation’s original plan appeared to use the ERC-721 token on Ethereum which remains a power hungry Proof of Work blockchain until most transactions move to the more efficient Proof of Stake blockchain Eth2. It is unclear if the platform considered other blockchains that can host NFTs using a fraction of the power.

This apology only appeased some of the community, however, with artists like Ashley Grace taking to Twitter again to voice their concerns about the apparent inconclusive wording of the post, likening NFTs to an “ecological nightmare pyramid scheme.”

Prior to pulling down the initial announcement, ArtStation unsuccessful attempted to placate the push-back, adding that it will be “contributing to offset the carbon footprint costs of any given piece of digital art transacted on the platform.”

Twitter user “Bleached Rainbows” stated that “ArtStation going into NFT and saying ‘but don’t worry! We’ll pay for carbon offsets’ is the equivalent of setting a house on fire then placing a single potted plant on the burned property as ‘compensation’.”

The backlash came on top of other controversies including rumored sexism and adult content, with artists threatening to cancel their subscriptions. Other issues included the unregulated nature of the NFT space and ability for scams to arise, and criticisms the move was a cash grab for the platform and most prominent artists.

Despite the intense controversy, NFTs continue to garner widespread support with Beeple’s Everydays: The First 5000 Days auction on Christie’s heating up. Kinetic founder Jehan Chu attempted to join but was outbid at $7.25 million with 2 days still to go.

The highest bid is currently $9.75 million.

Nine hours after ArtStation canceled the NFT launch, NFL tight end for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers Rob Gronkowski announced his new NFT collection of four cards to represent his four championships. The cards will be sold at auction via Opensea on Mar. 10.