The Mainstream Media Narrative
The mainstream media’s obvious dislike for the blockchain and cryptocurrencies wasn’t exactly new nor was it a secret. When Bitcoin was introduced in 2009 there was barely any news about the new and disruptive technology. And even when Bitcoin was gaining popularity, the media’s reception of it was mostly negative – calling it a bubble, passing fad, and other derogatory terms in an attempt to dissuade potential investor from investing on cryptocurrencies.
Fortunately, their attempts failed and cryptocurrencies rose to popularity and mainstream acceptance. But that doesn’t stop them from constantly undermining the crypto-market. After the “financial bubble” angle failed, the mainstream media moved to a new angle, climate change.
Climate change.
This topic had been a rather popular topic in recent years. When former US president Trump was still the sitting president, the mainstream media often used it to attack him. The other victim of this angle was, you guessed it, cryptocurrency – especially Bitcoin.
Their angle of attack is usually like this: Bitcoin and cryptocurrency mining, and recently NFTs are destroying the planet.
Mixing Lies with the Truth
I often browse the net for crypto-related news and every so often I’ll come across articles dissing and spreading lies about cryptocurrencies. Usually I would just ignore these articles but earlier I stumbled upon an online article by MSNBC.
The title of the article was: Bitcoin, NFTS and other crypto fads are destroying our planet.
Quite the sensational title, don’t you agree?
The title was rather eye catching, even someone like me who tends to ignore such article got curious and actually bothered to read the obvious clickbait article. If their goal was to make the readers click on the article, then they’ve succeed.
But before that though, I’ve prepared myself to what I’m about to read before clicking on the link. And after reading the article my expectations wasn’t crushed – it was trash. Okay, that might be a bit harsh. The article wasn’t that bad but it shows ignorance.
Anyways, my expectations weren’t high to begin with so I wasn’t that disappointed. It’s written by MSNCB after all. They and CNN were not known for their unbiased reporting and were even considered the kings of fake news by many.
Here’s an excerpt from the article.
“But the NFT market, and the crypto boom in general, do more harm than their supposed good. While NFTs may seem fun — and potentially profitable — they rely on a technology that has proven to be dangerous, if not disastrous, for our environment.” - Tiffany C. Li, MSNBC Opinion Columnist
Okay, let me stop you there.
Did she really call the technology behind all cryptocurrencies, the blockchain, as “dangerous and disastrous”? And “proven”? Really?
Certainly, cryptocurrency mining consumed a lot of electricity and produced too much heat but calling it “proven to be dangerous, if not disastrous to the environment” shows that this columnist has no idea what she’s talking about.
If she was so concerned about the destruction of environment to the point that she would call cryptocurrency mining as “dangerous and disastrous” then she should turn off the air-conditioning unit at her home and office. Why? Because air-conditioning consumed 20% of the world’s electricity and like cryptocurrency mining, our air-conditioner also produces a lot of heat in the form of steam.
But of course, this MSNBC columnist would not turn off her air-conditioner nor would she mention how much electricity it consumed. Why would she? It’ll affect her and her lifestyle.
The rest of the article talks about how the computer uses too much energy and that how some studies claimed that cryptocurrency mining could raise global temperature by 2 degrees. Those 2 degrees might not look much but it’s a lot if you consider the impact of those 2 degrees in the melting of the polar ice caps. Still, this was just speculation that has yet to proven and could not be used as proof.
I’m not saying that the 2 degrees rise in temperature was impossible but to blame it all on cryptocurrency mining is too far of a stretch. Let’s not forget that the blockchain technology was just a dozen or so years old. How long does constant burning of fossil fuel takes before it reached the point it is today? It certainly didn’t just take a dozen of years!
So yes, I find the study suspect. I believed that these researchers simply pushed all of the blame on cryptocurrency mining because it was an easy thing to do. In my opinion, there should be other factors involved that in that possible 2 degrees increase.
Back to article…
The whole article itself wasn’t there to simply blame crypocurrency mining for the future destruction of Earth. The article also mentioned the inherent potential of the blockchain technology (of course, it still insist of calling cryptocurrency a fad), and its effect on the economy. But at the same time the columnist also pushed for a federal hearing (and possible regulations) to make large platforms “accountable” for their role in slowly killing the planet. And yeah, there’s also about taxes and such…
My Thoughts
The mainstream media has always been on the side of the establishment and had been releasing hit pieces like the article I've mentioned. To make it sound that there articles are legit, they often mixed the lies with the truth.
Although considering that governments around the world were afraid of the new and disruptive technology known as the blockchain, it's not really that surprising surprising if you stop and think about it.
Still, I got to admit, the author of the MSNBC article do raise some serious if not overly exaggerated points about climate change and the destruction of the environment. Although the author was hell bent on making the blockchain technology the bad guy that was slowly killing the planet, it cannot change the fact that cryptocurrency mining do consume too much energy and produces too much heat.
The only way to change this was to stop using electricity produced by burning coal and other fossil fuel, and convert to a greener energy source while waiting for the development of energy saving technology. And as for the excess heat produced by cryptocurrency mining, plans were being made to use them in heating our homes and in producing food through greenhouses that uses said heat.
What do you guys think? Do you agree or disagree with my opinion? Please share your thoughts in the comment section.
That's all from me for now. Thank you for reading.
The News Article:
https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/bitcoin-nfts-other-crypto-fads-are-destroying-our-planet-n1261139
Image Source:
https://pixabay.com/illustrations/news-article-reading-searching-3499448/
https://pixabay.com/vectors/corruption-deceit-deception-2727571/
https://pixabay.com/vectors/man-person-face-glasse-choice-159771/
Pure fallacy. How much does the traditional financial model hurt the environemt? Machines to mine gold, trees for paper bills and beaurocracy? Global Warming from minting operations, mines, yadda yadda. Comparing all of those with electricity consumption - plus how much does all the equipment I mentioned consumes? And how much earth poisoning is done in those processes. To top it all off, mining will scale and start being more efficient. Cheers and have a good day beast.