Tether Holdings Inc., the company behind the leading stablecoin USDT, announced on March 30 their new enterprise with sustainable Bitcoin mining in Uruguay. Five months later, there was a new update on August 24 on what could be one of these new Bitcoin (BTC) mining sites, but one thing stood out above what should have been some good news.
Paolo Ardoino, CTO at Tether and Bitfinex, shared a picture on X (formerly Twitter) of what he called “one of Tether energy production and Bitcoin mining sites”, adding that it was “coming along well.”
One of #Tether energy production and #Bitcoin mining sites coming along well. pic.twitter.com/6Z8o6A5OaE
— Paolo Ardoino ? (@paoloardoino) August 24, 2023However, multiple accounts replied that the Tether logo looked digitally altered (commonly called “photoshopped”), pointing to imperfections in the work’s result. Paolo Ardoino did not respond to any of these claims by press time.
Error Level Analysis (ELA) on Tether’s Bitcoin mining site photo. Source: FotoForensics.com
According to the website’s description of this type of analysis:
“Error Level Analysis (ELA) permits identifying areas within an image that are at different compression levels. With JPEG images, the entire picture should be at roughly the same level. If a section of the image is at a significantly different error level, then it likely indicates a digital modification.”
— FotoForensics TutorialAll things considered, the rest of the image did not present any meaningful results that could indicate digital alteration, which suggests that the containers in the alleged mining site are real.
The state of Bitcoin mining
The Bitcoin mining difficulty increased by 6.17% on August 22, reaching an all-time high of 55.62 trillion hashes, as the Bitcoin Network hashrate continues to rise despite past increases in the difficulty adjustment.
With a sustained increase in mining difficulty over time, Bitcoin miners are working ‘underwater’, as the average cost to mine one single BTC has been superior to the average price of 1 BTC in the spot market year-over-year since August 2022.
Interestingly, Tether is joining the Bitcoin mining businesses in a moment of high risk, but also high opportunities for healthy players who can manage lower activity costs — like using renewable energy in emerging countries — and easier access to private funding.
Story update on August 26
Paolo Ardoino, CTO at Tether Holdings, shared more information regarding Tether’s Bitcoin mining site on X.
GMLot of speculation from the community on the photo I posted showing a container with the "Tether Energy" logo."Is the site real?", questioned some tabloid.Did Paolo really photoshopped the logo on a container?Did Paolo really start to eat cabbages and vegetables?Well,… pic.twitter.com/fXtGRFBWuo
— Paolo Ardoino ? (@paoloardoino) August 26, 2023Interestingly, it is possible to see the company’s plans regarding the underdevelopment mining site, in a 3D-illustrated video.
According to Ardoino, the shared image was of real containers, but the Tether Energy logo was added later, digitally, as noted by the community. The CTO also assures that the Bitcoin mining site is real, located in Latin America (LATAM).
