- The Texas Blockchain Council and Riot Platforms won their case against the US Department of Energy and other government agencies.
- They achieved a temporary ban on collecting information about Bitcoin miners.
- The court declared the departments' actions illegal.
The Texas Blockchain Council (TBC) and cryptocurrency mining company Riot Platforms were able to convince a judge to ban the “emergency” collection of data on Bitcoin miners. Previously, this procedure was initiated by the US Department of Energy (DoE) and some government organizations.
According to the document, the court prohibited departments from collecting official information about Bitcoin miners. He declared their actions illegal and demanded to stop not only the collection, but also the dissemination of any data obtained as a result of the survey.
TBC and Riot Platforms previously argued that potential harms from data collection include “unrecoverable costs, the credible threat of legal action if non-compliance occurs, and disclosure of requested confidential information.”
The plaintiffs indicated that the government acted bypassing existing rules on the activities of mining companies. By law, US authorities are required to notify firms of data collection activities 60 days before the start of the process.
In addition, there was controversy regarding the duration of this procedure.. EIA estimated this process to take approximately 30 minutes, while the TBC and Riot document estimated approximately 40 hours.
Based on the information provided, the court decided to approve a temporary ban on the collection of information and “maintain the status quo” until March 25.
Let us recall that in January 2024, the mining company Hut 8 was accused of market manipulation and creating risks for shareholders. We also wrote that miners in 2023 will be equal to Australia in terms of the amount of electricity consumed.