New ‘Erin Brockovich’ type scandal because of crypto mine in Texas, Bitcoin continues rising
Last Updated on 15 July 2024 by CryptoTips.eu
A large Bitcoin mine in Texas which was acquired by Marathon Digital this year, is in the midst of a growing scandal. As a heat wave threatens to shut down the energy grid, more and more residents of the town of Grandbury are complaining about the constant buzzing noise from the business and the health problems they are experiencing because of it.
TIME spoke to people in the Granbury area who reported a medical ailment that they believe is connected to the arrival of the Bitcoin mine: hypertension, heart palpitations, chest pain, vertigo, tinnitus, migraines, panic attacks https://t.co/ApEesdN1zT pic.twitter.com/Y0SXDFUgDp
— TIME (@TIME) July 8, 2024
As the story gains momentum and becomes a true “Erin Brockovich” scandal, the world’s largest Bitcoin mining company will soon be forced to take action. An initial lawsuit has already been won, but it is now certain that a higher court will have to judge. More and more media are starting to cover the story.
Meanwhile Bitcoin keeps rising. Ever since the attack on Donald Trump the biggest digital coin is once again in a positive flow. At the time of writing Bitcoin trades for $62,800.
Julia Roberts
Erin Bockovich, the 2000 film starring Julia Roberts, was a worldwide hit. It is the true tale of a group of ordinary citizens who become ill because of a water company and its actions. They start a lawsuit and win millions in damage payments.
Last week, a local newspaper in Texas published a similar story that has since gone viral on social media and been picked up by ever larger newspapers.
This time the role of the villain is played by Marathon Digital, by now the largest Bitcoin mining company in the world. In the beginning of 2024, Marathon took over a data center in Grandbury, a town of about 12,000 inhabitants in Texas, and turned it into a Bitcoin mine.
Residents of Granby, Texas, claim they are plagued by a constant noise, akin to a subway train, from a factory housing tens of thousands of power-hungry computers ⬇️ https://t.co/epKmXAbv1j
— The Times and The Sunday Times (@thetimes) July 12, 2024
Normally these data centers are located in the desert or quite remote from residential areas, but as photos show, this site is located smack in the middle of some houses.
Trump
There are several reasons why the Bitcoin boom is happening in Texas. In 2021, the Chinese government banned Bitcoin mining companies on its territory, mainly because they were illegally tapping electricity from the energy grid and because the government in Beijing wanted to promote its own CBDC (Central Bank Digital Currency). Ever since then, many of those Bitcoin companies have moved to Kazakhstan and the United States.
Texas got the most of them, others moved to Arkansas and North Dakota. That’s because there is enough land in Texas to build a site and because business taxes are extremely low.
The problem is that this site, which used to be used simply as a data center, has now become much larger and is very noisy. As a result, many residents of the town have developed health complaints. About 47 of them have now filed a complaint and their story is receiving increasing attention in the press due to the media attention, and the high price of Bitcoin.
Donald Trump, who normally attracts votes easily in Texas, a classically Republican state, will soon have to speak out on the problem. Next week he normally gives a speech in Nashville, at the big Bitcoin2024 conference.
