Bitcoin Forum

Information recently surfaced that someone in North Korea has started mining bitcoin. According to Recorded Future, a threat intelligence company, on May 17 North Korea initiated a rather large mining operation. Prior to this date, there was minimal bitcoin node activity in the country.
https://news.bitcoin.com/north-korea-begins-bitcoin-mining-operation/
Some people think that north korean governmnet engaging in bitcoin mining.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VCBM51-bbc8
whats your opinion is it dangerous for Bitcoin or good as UN and USA have strong sanctions against NK.

Somehow I don't believe that NK government is involved in bitcoin. They are type of country who might ban the bitcoin, not use it. But even if they are doing that they will do it secretly but still US sanctions against them will not influence the price in negativne way.

I think they are but again USA put so mutch pressure on them now i don't think they have much influence

there is big money in it. If north Korea can make big money from this why cannot they benefit from this as their economy is already down because of sanctions so they see bitcoin a big chance to earn notable money

USA cannot stop NK as it can only need internet connection so they can mine it at state level

If officials in North Korea decided that they want to mine bitcoin, then no one will be able to stop them.
North Korea is known for doing some crazy shit in the past, they were engaged in the creation of Superdollar, perfectly counterfeited USDollars in the past.
It is strange that they only realized Bitcoin's potential so late. I was quite sure they were secretly mining bitcoin since 2013.

it doesn't really make any sense to me.

they'd have to spend millions in hard currency to buy the machines, allocate a load of their mediocre power structure to run it and might never get their investment back.

they forge dollars and smuggle crystal meth and heroin in diplomatic bags. that and the insurance fraud they do is way more profitable.

agree with you. They always take advantage of every growing thing even all world is against that thing. so is the BTC case as mostly countries declared it illegal but they are dong it at may be state level creating big money.

you can say that but a big increase of mining from korea is seen. what u can say about that? Can not NK make these machines by their self if they can make missile ?

I wouldn't be surprised if there is some mining going on within NK since they basically have no trade beyond China and there are already tons of sanctions against their country which make it incredibly difficult to trade on the larger world stage. Having something with a lot more value than their own currency (and lack of every other currency, aside from some trade goods), such as Bitcoin, is a massive boost to their economy as soon as the first few dollars start to come through the door. My question is where they got the equipment to start mining Bitcoin, or other cryptos, and what their hashing power is. I want to believe it isn't anything huge, but they could have imported some (or lots of) GPUs or ASICs from China.

There was this guy which I think was a BBC staff. He went to North Korea to experience and see things. In the heart of the city condominiums also exist. What struck me is people use stairways as electricity is very unstable and they have bad experiences being stranded in elevators. Well actually it's been known even before that they don't have enough power supply and it includes Pyongyang. It is still possible that they are funding to mine cryptocurrencies but it should be outside Nokor.  

They easily get it through the black market, no matter how much we speculate but I think it's really done by north korea, we can only guess because north korea is closing all their information and not even in search of google.

Roughly about hashrate and all the mines they use are definitely big because only their government can do all that. So far we have always asked what business they are doing so that it can produce war equipment and stabilize the country's sovereignty, bitcoin mining is a reasonable answer.

yes they can purchase it from china.. what u think cannot they design and make GPUs and ASICs in NK when they can design and make Missiles?

i think that may be media FUD

I am not sure about the authenticity of the information but it is highly possible that they could undertake a heavy investment and start mining as Kim Jong-un is the final word and since he rules the entire country and he is in his early 30s so he understands how technology works and  he could understand the profit that he could earn by investing in mining,so it is possible they are doing that.

they imported the missile engines. the nuclear stuff probably came from pakistan. the country is a ruin.

there's no way in hell they have the skills to make an asic chip.

and it still doesn't make any economic sense. they're outright criminals and there's way more money to be made doing that.

Making a missile is a lot different than making an efficient and cost-effective ASIC or GPU. Missiles were around during the second world war; we didn't have GPUs or ASICs under the last few decades. CPUs are easier to make, and that's the main component in a modern missile's navigation systems. Not a 1080 TI or S7. Both of those are highly specialized. But there is a chance they're making their own. Whether or not they're efficient is a different story. Plus a lot of the technology for missiles is already available through other countries, a lot of things can be made cheaply and without fancy equipment. Nuclear missiles were around when computers were the sizes of rooms; an ASIC can't be that big and mine well.

There are lots of Chinese people in North Korea. So it is more likely that would be Chinese miners.
Pretty strange though, because, from what I know, North Korea is not so powerful country regarding electricity...

Whoever engages in bitcoin mining it is good for Bitcoin. I don't support North Korean politics and I know that by mining Bitcoin they are going to make themselves stronger, but on the other hand, who knows what is behind the other miners? I think this shouldn't bother Bitcoin community who and for what purposes mines Bitcoin. There are special departments in every country who's job to care about that.

Even in the major cities such as Rason and Pyongyang, the electricity supply is very erratic, and in normal cases people don't expect the supplies for more than 4 hours every day. And another aspect is regarding the internet. Somewhere I learnt that there are less than 1,000 internet users in North Korea, and most of them are hackers working for the dictatorship.

If this matters only imply on its government, I would say "Yes", as the sanctions of North Korea from other county's is now affecting there way economy there is a big chance that the government of NK itself resort in such mining that might be one reason of price increases this fast few days. It is jus an opinionated comment hope be respectful.

Thats something i never thought that could happen! I will be sure to search this more .
I think it will be dangerous for the rest of the world..? If they have a good strategy to "play" with bitcoins....?

Wow that is really unbelievable stuff to read about. If government starts the mining operation then bitcoin is going to take really different turn and Korean's might just embed bitcoin as their home currency. This will be ambiguous as whether its going to benefit rest of the world as well or juts for the Korea. If all the coins are mined by Koreans then every bit of fiat will go to their country in the form of bitcoin. But there is also question which is debatable is this news really a news or just start of rumour. No matter how official channels are, rumours can come out of the sky.

Nobody can be sure about it but if there is a government that is so freaking afraid of decentralization it must that demagogue regime right there in North Korea. However, the government can decide to make some business and invest in mining equipment since they know that many Chinese are doing it. Anyway, it does not really matter if N.Korea is into mining or not.

I think it was totally fine because bitcoin mining is not racist. Everyone can mine bitcoin if they have the equipment required to mine bitcoin.

I think it's a great news if NK also try to accept bitcoin as well
Imagine if there is major demand against bitcoin for their nuclear project, bitcoin will increase even more than highest today

I do not think so. There were other things they have to do first rather than bitcoin.  In case, there were civilian who are using, earning, and investing bitcoin. 

I read a report that they are. Quite smart of them. It shows they are ahead of the game. Although realistically, many countries are likely doing so at the moment. North Korea just has a huge mainstream presence compared to the others which gets them in the news. In any case, I wonder how many they have. They could become a powerhouse when it hits $1,000,000. hahaha

North Korea in a desperate need of foreign currencies since no one trades with the country. So mining Bitcoin is a very wise decision of them. If they turn at least part of their efforts of making weapons to Bitcoin mining I think they can make big progress in acquiring hard currency in the future.

I suppose we are all under control, some terrible economic power is trying to manipulate the world with bitcoin, then, the value of bitcoin is constantly going up, it's a suspicion of me.

There is no way you can find that out north korea doesn't have internet and they are the most advance community even if they are mining they might have a figured a way to not show the location and are quietly mining. According to mining rules that is allowed anyone with computer can mine

Good for North korean govt. if, they are into mining. I believe breaking out from limitation & slavery from the so-called super power countries is one of the reason why Negatomo invented bitcoin.

No country has the right to place ristriction(s) on other countires!

Aren't they too busy doing stupid things like weapons testing and threatening other countries because kimmy has small penis syndrome?   ;D


Of course they have internet access there. Why wouldn't they? What rubbish are you talking? They not advanced at all. They communists hello do you know what is going on here? Which ever said anything about showing you mining position? Who cares anyway?


Ahh... No... It's simply supply and demand.

If a country is spending money to start a big mining pool there is nothing wrong in it and since there are many sanctions against North Korea i think they could make a good amount of revenue through mining and if they could tap that opportunity then it is their concern on what to do with it,since bitcoin is decentralized it really never matters from where the mining takes place as long as the operations are running smooth for bitcoin.

They don't even have enough power for their country. I'm not saying they aren't willing to starve 1000's of people for a mining operation...but it seems implausible especially considering their one 5 star hotel shuts down when guests check out.

We're talking about here is that this country, who threatens other countries, is now engaging in mining BTC. If they use the BTC as a way to get out of that sanctions, then NK will win the fight. They are capable of mining and use it efficiently to finance their operations. Who knows what will still happen in the future.

Are you kidding me the more people mining bitcoin the higher the price it becomes and the more the supply it gets. So even if the country mining it is a dangerous one it's still good for both bitcoin currency and the users. Ive seen a thread in this forum that the North korea government bans the usage of it's internet from it's citizens and only accessible by high government officials. So this news is probably true.

If the north korea will continue or engage in bitcoin mining then it will be a good news for us because it will be another country that will be on bitcoin and that mining of bitcoin will add more bitcoin in the market and for sure, the people in the north korea will be using bitcoin too so it will be a huge help for the price to get into a higher state.

It's not impossible that they're mining Bitcoin and Altcoins to get money as many as they can to fund their research for their own benefits.
They're sending their citizens to any part of the world to get dollars through remittances and the same way of they're going to mine crypto currencies then by now perhaps they're already collected a lot of coins.

Of course. They are not as stupid as we think. NK is miles ahead of many western countries regarding cyber warfare/crypto etc

I think the money in agrarian industry is bigger than mining, besides why they do things that don’t support their other programs? the Korean government isn’t stupid and we are talking about a country not a city that conspires to embezzle government funds to build a mining center underground, the profit earned is large but if it’s intended for the country then the profit is very small.

   I concur, same ppl here say 'china banned bitcoin', same ppl here say NK bans laptops, ...

  Listen up, NK wants to modernize and over take the west, just like SK has already done with Samsung, Kim ain't stupid,

Besides its too easy to hack BTC, kim is smart the achilles heal of US is to break the BTC machine right about the time the  US Gov demands upon it for this new form FRB welfare redistribution of ZOG fiat.

If a country really decide to be involved in bitcoin mining, which means they maybe posses majority of the coins later.
It might be a threat, if bitcoin really reach $1m it the future then the danger would be real. North Korea might use all its bitcoin asset to start a world war ;D

I don't think they can do bitcoin and altcoin mining in a larger scale in their country. Because there, lots of things are forbidden and the government pressure on people is high enough.

They're not that intellectual to use coins.

Its interesting if it's true....

time will tell...

The country is closed and notopen to the world, i thi k they have the technology to mine,since they can create weapons of mass destruction, however i do not see if they can provide enough power to create mining farms, there is still a possibility they are mining, but in the long run, they may not have that much bitcoin on their hands, unlike other countries.

Both side of Korea's are great countries but very specific! If bitcoin are most transferable and are more interchangeability and more popular and used in a lot of country it make huge market place and it make demand and supply  = profit. Problem is in specific of this countries but it can allow to North Korea avoid sanctions because USA cannot to control all currently

It is said that north korea has started to mine bitcoins from 2017 beginning when north korea faced huge sanctions.There is also a conspiracy theory that north korea has link with ransomware wannacry.

But it is said that some suspicious activities were found in some regions of the regime where lots of computers are expected to operate mining bitcoins.

Already,we read the news that north korean hackers targeted south korean exchanges for stealing bitcoins.

Whether its 100% true or not,but in future north korea may vigorously indulge in mining operations to bye pass US sanctions.

In the grand scheme of things would it really matter if nk were mining they are a country that survive with out us dollars. Anything that happens there is always shrouded in secrecy.

It is time for the DPRK's internet to become an intranet.

Problem is, the NK hackers work in China.

The report fails to detail how many nodes and whether its TCP/RPC traffic or mining control or just nodes relaying transactions. I think it is too early to say if NK is mining for coins or just dabbling. The report uses a wiki definition of mining in quotes and is very misleading and lacking in specifics. If they actually mine, I would love to see how quickly they could grow to a PetaHash. And, who knows. Maybe they start a NKpool. Are there any other hostile dictators fostering Bitcoin Mining? I guess there will be many later on, since Banks and their Government Masters keep sanctioning anyone who is said to be dealing with NK. I wonder when that PetaHash day happens if people will care if their Bitcoin had passed through NK. I do not and I welcome additional miners, even from Mars. If KJI of NK sold me a SnoCone, I would still want my change in BTC not a FIAT and then accused of material support. The most obvious reason for attempting to relay transactions in NK for BTC. Someone is buying something.

KJU probably hasn't heard AlphaBay got shut down by the feds." What do you mean my AlphaBay order with Ayatollah666 has been cancelled. I need that pointy thing to put bomb on missile."

I don't think that it would have massive effect on the trading industry of bitcoin because one reason is North Korea is not one of the most influential but don't get me wrong they are indeed a very powerful country but in terms of the economic and business perspective they are not one of the country which would believe and support against their fight in bitcoin.

Hi,

It can be quite interesting for North Korea to mine bitcoin.. as if it is a governmental decision, they don't have to pay the electricity necessary for the mining..
Is it a threat? I don't think so.

I mean, if the US decide it is bad and they have to act... they may declare bitcoin illegal. And then? People don't use it in real life, so it just means that more people are going to invest in VPN. Nothing to worry about!

And if your issue is rather moral than legal, then tell yourself that using dollars or euros is much worst than using bitcoin. Dollars and euros (amonsgt others) are funding terrorism, slavery, pollution and so on. Bitcoin may also be involved (I don't have the slightest idea) but at least it is not controled by any institution. So what you do with bitcoin is your own business!  ;)

North Korean Govt have worlds best hackers and they might be holding huge amount of bitcoin also power hunger nation will try to be strong in Crypto space as well

I do not think the North Korean government will go in mining of bitcoin. I think the mining in the country is been done by an individual or group of people.

If this is not a fake news then North Korea have the right to join digital currencies specially thru mining because if there ally which is China is known of having huge numbers of bitcoin miners in the whole world therefore as China is communist counter part i believed North Korea will engage in bitcoin too because they will believed that they can earned bitcoin to support their nation with the support of China but i think their earnings will not to benefits their Korean people but just to be use for funding their military and nuclear programs.

Actually, I'm not surprised if they are mining or hacking bitcoins. They gonna use available way (legal and illegal) to fund their rocket and nuclear program, arming their army and others. They have a policy called "military first" that always prioritise military programs than civillian. In light of recent threats, I think NK is storing funds if it wants to go to war. Bitcoin is no exception.

I dont realy think that NK could do mining bitcoin in first place. North korea was the that no one can do what ever they want to do except for the president even internet i think is very hard to penitrate inside the NK country all the news there was only from local country there is no international news in there country.

They also printed the 'super dollar' the best counterfieiters on earth,

Thus given their tech, why would they not clone BTC, and crack/hack and solve the NSA puzzle,

Here's the deal NSA - ZOG banking created BTC, and they used it get FRB liquidity out in the world of the $20 Trillion since 2007 only $350 Billion USD went to BTC,

IF&WHEN NK kills BTC, pulls the switch they could seriously destroy the uncle-sam, aunt-zoggie infinity printing press, and of course kill funding of Israel.

No doubt that NK & IRAN are number one enemys on earth of ZOG? WHY cuz they're the only countrys that are NOT owned by goldman-sachs, the same GS that own TRUMP-POTUS.

All the bots here on THIS FORUM are great at the normal ZOG demonization, but only morons buy their narrative.

Hasbara paid college students, send them home. Please.

....

What's the deal? Saudi/Israel OIL is gone, and that means PETRO-DOLLAR is dead, which means no more ZOG-BUCKS for Israel; North-Korea is sitting on oil reserves exceeding saudi, and rare earth minerals that create high-tech some 90% of the world arsenic/gallium is sleeping in NK. Thus all the worlds criminals are salivating on NK.

I wouldn't be surprised if NoKor is engaging in bitcoin mining. There's so much money involved and to profit from it, and than alone could be the main goal of Kim. Another reason that I can think of is that with bitcoin mining, they can go around with the trade embargo US and the West has on them. They can just exchange the money they profited from mining and help them be self sufficient.

About a month ago, there was news that a group of hackers are targeting South Korean's trading platform to stole. So I'm sure that they are really in bitcoin right now, either mining, and or hacking and stealing. They are desperate, and we all know what a desperate person (nation) will do in order to survived.

In my own opinion on how I see North Korea, I don't think they would even mine for Bitcoin since they have the kind of government that would ban it immediately after being introduced.

I don't think that North Korean government is involved in Bitcoinm mining, because there are a lot of sanctions on them. Anyway what can they gain by Bitcoin mining? I doubt people od North Korea use it.

The North Korean governement surely have a hand in some mining. They are definitely known for stealing and hacking into exchanges and databases so why would they not also take part in mining. They are probably stealing the power to do that as well. Who knows what they are really capable of and what kind of impact they have behind the scenes.