A Bitcoin mine moved to a small town in Texas. One by one, the residents fell ill.

Over the course of several months in 2024, TIME spoke to more than 40 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. At least 10 people went to urgent care or the emergency room with these symptoms. The development of large-scale Bitcoin mines and data centers is quite new, and most of them are housed in extremely remote places. There have been no major medical studies on the impacts of living near one. But there is an increasing body of scientific studies linking prolonged exposure to noise pollution with cardiovascular damage.

  • dhork@lemmy.worldEnglish
    605·
    5 months ago

    Yeah, fuck the Crypto Bros and all, but the noise is the only documented trigger here. I can believe that exposure to constant, loud noise can cause health issues, but the rest of it reads like a copy-paste about the dangers of 5G cell towers. I find it hard to believe that noise can cause ear infections, or cause plants to die.

    Its fashionable to blame the crypto bros for everything, because they are insufferable twats. But the real blame lies with the State that lets businesses generate noise with impunity.

      • Todd Bonzalez@lemm.ee
        7·
        5 months ago

        Well, if this were plausible, you would expect to hear a lot more complaints from people who live and work near datacenters. But we don’t, so I think it’s pretty easy to conclude that these computers aren’t emitting ultrasound, or if they are that it isn’t the source of the issue.

        Do you know how loud ultrasound has to be just to travel a few meters through the air? People would basically have to be living inside the datacenter even if these things were converting half their energy input into deliberately generating ultrasound.

      • Justin@lemmy.jlh.nameEnglish
        142·
        5 months ago

        Ultrasound falls off quickly and is very easily blocked by obstructions. Bitcoin didn’t invent ultrasound, or computers either, for that matter. Even if it had an effect, then we’d see people dropping dead in electronics stores.

    • deafboy@lemmy.worldEnglish
      312·
      5 months ago

      rest of it reads like a copy-paste about the dangers of 5G cell towers

      I was just about to say boo-hoo, a dog gone bald, but 85 decibels measured from outside your window is brutal. There’s a reason these farms are mostly built in the middle of the desert, on the oil fields, or near a dam, with no residential housing nearby.

      Yeah, every medical emergency in town will be blamed on Mara from now on, but I’m not even mad. They’ve got themselves into this mess. For those who don’t know, they’ve built their entire marketing on being compliant with regulations :D

      The whole thing is awfully similar to the wind turbine controversy. The reasonable people spend years assuring the public that the windmills are not going to kill them, and then somebody comes up and says “Great! We’re gonna build our windfarm right next to these houses”.

      • Cleverdawny@lemm.ee
        6·
        5 months ago

        Except wind farms don’t emit noise. I work around them. You can just go into a field right under a huge windmill and take a nap, they’re fully silent within our hearing range

        • deafboy@lemmy.world
          4·
          5 months ago

          It’s not about what they do, it’s about what people think they do! :D

          go into a field right under a huge windmill

          Must be nice to see them go up-close. I must add that to my bucket list.

          • Cleverdawny@lemm.ee
            5·
            5 months ago

            They’re super cool! You have no idea how big they really are. The blades are the length of perhaps four or five semi trucks. Absolutely massive.

  • ChicoSuave@lemmy.world
    24·
    5 months ago

    While this is easy to dismiss as “crypto bros being themselves” it’s worth mentioning that this is run by Marathon Energy who owns the power plant that the mining boxes were built to surround. This isn’t just “crypto bros” but a multinational oil and energy company that opted to skip a data center building and used conex boxes with turbo fans. The fans output jet engine 90+ decibels.

    The real story is that Marathon used their fossil fuel lobby to push through Bitcoin laws that limit any restrictions, so even if the town wanted to they would need to compete with a leading fossil fuel provider, and no municipality has that kind of money. Major corporate interests are jumping on this opportunity and limiting their opposition early.

  • 2484345508@lemy.lolEnglish
    121·
    5 months ago

    Bitcoin mining industry is urgently trying to push bills through state legislatures, including in Indiana and Missouri, which would exempt Bitcoin mines from local zoning or noise ordinances. In May, Oklahoma governor Kevin Stitt signed a “Bitcoin Rights” bill to protect miners and prevent any future attempts to ban the industry.

    All you need to know. Treasonous motherfuckers throwing their own countrymen under the bus for lobby money.

    • Justin@lemmy.jlh.nameEnglish
      4·
      5 months ago

      Gotta love how money makes you exempt from any common-sense pollution regulation. To be fair, I’d be pretty sick too if there was an air siren next to my house going off 24/7.

  • Justin@lemmy.jlh.nameEnglish
    92·
    5 months ago

    People talk so much about how *latest technology* is killing them, like wind turbines, cell phones, etc. Meanwhile cars are literally killing hundreds of people every day and we don’t do anything about it.