[2016-06-07] Chinese Bitcoin Miners Busted for Electricity Theft

[hendra147]

Some Bitcoin miners have been busted for stealing electricity according to a public statement by police in Ma’anshan, a mining town in China. Very few details are provided except to state that 74 bitcoin mining units have been seized, coinciding with a small fall in difficulty of around 1.63% on June the 8th.

This is the second known case of Chinese bitcoin miners stealing electricity. Last year, 200 bitcoin mining rigs were seized following investigation by Ma’anshan’s power companies and police after reports from the public suggested possible stealing behavior. The investigation found that an ordinary looking house in the mining town was being used as a small mining farm without paying for electricity to such extent that it amounts to a “serious stealing behavior.”

https://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/chinese-bitcoin-miners-busted/

[Kprawn]

In my city, something like that will not go unnoticed... if your electricity usage goes a little bit higher than usual.. you get a knock on the door... We also have penaly brackets, so if your electricity

usage is in the highest range, you pay massive penalties. {Weird but true... we are punished for excessive usage} They usually think you are cultivating some special crops of the smoking kind, when

your electricity bill is on the higher end of the range.... if you get what I am saying.  

[yayayo]

I think it's not that surprising to read stories about electricity theft from countries like China. Chinese pools contribute the largest amount of hashing power and competition between miners is fierce. In addition in parts of the Chinese culture it is not considered a bad attribute if you "outsmart" other people. So if you don't want to throw away your older hardware, why not try to continue running it "for free", especially if controls on electricity consumption are not the norm and you might get away with it?

In my city, something like that will not go unnoticed... if your electricity usage goes a little bit higher than usual..

I think this is one of the worst kinds of surveillance, because it projects totally unwarranted suspicions on anybody that exceeds the usage norm.

ya.ya.yo!

[a7mos]

they are making a lot of profit from mining. so why do not they pay for the electricity they consume ? specially it does cost the government to provide them with it

[Hazir]

they are making a lot of profit from mining. so why do not they pay for the electricity they consume ? specially it does cost the government to provide them with it

Because humans are greedy by nature and if they could got away with not paying anything at all then why bother?
I suspect that it is only a tip of an iceberg and many bitcoin mining farms operates in similar fashion. Not only in China.

[Grinder]

In my city, something like that will not go unnoticed... if your electricity usage goes a little bit higher than usual.. you get a knock on the door...

They wouldn't know if you were stealing it. The thieves will connect to the cable before the meter so they can only see that the total energy output is higher than what their customers have used in total. If they hadn't stolen so much they would probably never have been caught.