Found this article: http://www.linuxjournal.com/content/zareasons-valta-x79, and it mentioned cryptocurrency.  (It got me to look into Bitcoin in the first  place.)

At the top of the last page, it says "We've Secretly Replaced Our Benchmarking Tools with Cryptocurrency!"

Found that very interesting... and it means the author is sort of getting paid for testing out the system. 

Would that make you trust his conclusions any less?