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Judge issues restraining order keeping DOE from tracking bitcoin miners

The Department of Energy wants to know how 2% of the US's electricity is being used.

In making the decision, the DOE noted that the share of bitcoin mining happening in the US has shot up by a factor of over 10 just within the last three years, leaving the activity consuming as much electricity as a fairly populous state. The District's Waco Division is also the home of Judge Alan Albright, who gained notoriety for providing such a favorable venue that roughly a quarter of the patent lawsuits in the US were filed there. Advertisement The mining companies that filed the suit argued that they'd experience irreparable harms by completing the DOE survey, including the costs of filling it out, and that the risks of doing so would reveal confidential business information.

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