The Texas Blockchain Council (TBC) and Riot Platforms, a Bitcoin mining company, have reached an agreement with United States energy officials to halt a proposed emergency survey targeting crypto miners across the country. The U.S. Department of Energy, the Energy Information Administration (EIA), and the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) have settled with the TBC and Riot, agreeing to stop gathering information from crypto miners for the three-year emergency survey, known as the “EIA-862 Emergency Collection Request.” All previously collected information from crypto miners will be deleted, and any future data will also be discarded. The settlement effectively cancels the temporary restraining order that was in place until March 8. The court had initially suspended the U.S. energy regulators from collecting data while the lawsuit was ongoing, after the TBC and Riot argued that irreversible harm would occur without prohibiting further data collection. The plaintiffs claimed that the survey could result in non-recoverable costs of compliance, a credible threat of prosecution for non-compliance, and the disclosure of proprietary information. The court deemed the EIA’s estimate that the survey would take 30 minutes to complete as “extremely inaccurate,” with the TBC and Riot stating that compliance has already taken over 40 hours. However, both parties have agreed that the EIA can issue a new notice requesting public feedback for two months on the information it is allowed to collect.
US energy officials agree to 'eradicate' all data from cryptocurrency mining survey