• Cryptocurrency prices have crashed;
• Mining is less profitable;
• There's a heatwave;
• Electricity prices go up with demand;
• LINE GOES DOWN.

So of course they stopped running the mines when it became unprofitable to do so.

But the credulous stenographers of the tech press would have you believe that the Libertarian grifters behind these climate-incinerating Ponzi schemes are doing this out of the goodness of their shriveled, reptilian hearts.

Journalistic malpractice from The Verge:

Texas' grid operator asked residents and businesses to conserve energy on Monday with "extreme hot weather driving record power demand across Texas." Bitcoin mining companies in the state responded by turning off their machines that otherwise would have used over 1,000 megawatts of electricity, according to the Texas Blockchain Council. That freed up about 1 percent of the grid's total capacity.

"They are shutting down for several reasons but primarily because it is the right thing to do to be a good 'grid citizen,'" said Lee Bratcher, president of the Texas Blockchain Council.

Journalistic malpractice from Gizmodo:

The lone star state's electricity system kindly asked big energy users to kindly hop off the grid for when the power usage inevitably spikes. One of those big energy users is, of course, the crypto miners. Major bitcoin mining operations have acquiesced to turning off their power-hungry systems so as not to tax Texas. [...]

Yet, even these kindly gestures bely an even more critical future for Texans.

The cryptocurrency industry would seem unrealistic and ham-handed if it was a villain on Captain Planet: they manufacture only POLLUTION, nothing else, and they turn that into money.

But yeah, they're just "good citizens" out there "doing the right thing", "voluntarily".

Bitcoin miners have flocked to Texas over the past year after China banned the practice, and the US subsequently became the biggest hub for mining globally. Those crypto miners are expected to inflate electricity demand in Texas by up to 6 gigawatts by the middle of next year.

Previously, previously, previously, previously, previously, previously, previously, previously.