China: Man Sentenced to Prison for Stealing Railway Electricity to Mine Bitcoin

[Reatim]

Although the Chinese regulatory bodies have maintained their distance from cryptocurrencies, it has not deterred the people in the country from partaking in the promising crypto mining industry – as a Chinese man was recently sentenced to 3.5 years in prison for stealing power from a train station to mine Bitcoin (BTC). The incident was reported by the local media outlet The Paper, on October 8, 2018.

https://btcmanager.com/chinese-man-prison-for-stealing-electricity-mine-bitcoin/

Oh well, he took the risk and now he is in jail.  I wonder how much he earn mining bitcoin  because it means that he knows what his doing is wrong but I guess he see the $$$ that's why its worth a try. hehehe.

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[Thinkable999]

Many people started mining from the crypto boom using unfair means. Various softwares were also rigged and used secret mining exploits using other people's resources.

[pozmu]

He mined 3.2BTC worth 120 000 yuan using electricity worth 104 000 yuan as The Paper reports.
I think this is common practice in many countries, I've used to live a man who was stealing power for his household use, wires were visible in the corridor but no one cared   We can only wonder what's happening in datacenters, powerplants etc. when there is such simple way to convert electricity and computing power into money.

[Jannn]

3.5 years is excessive though jesus. THREE YEARS just for stealing electricity? Man I am glad I don't live in China, sounds like a horrible place to live.

I think a more reasonable sentence is three months, or possibly even just long community service, what a joke.

[PsylockReborn]

This guy really crossed the line in here. Bitcoin is banned in China yet he still has the guts to mine bitcoin using stolen power. He should've used his resourcefulness in another way, not in an illegal way. Worst thing is that those BTCs that he mined won't even suffice in paying his bail. Sometimes we really need to think before we do stupid decisions for it may haunt us down and put us behind bars.

[Osamede]

He mined 3.2BTC worth 120 000 yuan using electricity worth 104 000 yuan as The Paper reports.
I think this is common practice in many countries, I've used to live a man who was stealing power for his household use, wires were visible in the corridor but no one cared   We can only wonder what's happening in datacenters, powerplants etc. when there is such simple way to convert electricity and computing power into money.

Such practice is common in places where there is little or no control over public infrastructure. especially in government buildings where bills are paid directly by the Government.

[KonstantinosM]

3.5 years is excessive though jesus. THREE YEARS just for stealing electricity? Man I am glad I don't live in China, sounds like a horrible place to live.

I think a more reasonable sentence is three months, or possibly even just long community service, what a joke.

Yes, and it's quite difficult to get the actual facts of the case. The government there is so corrupt that he might have been arrested just so they could steal his bitcoin and mining hardware, only for some corrupt official to get some more money.

I think a fine in this case would have been enough. Maybe no-jailtime or just a few weeks if it was his first serious offence.

[Osamede]

Not very smart of him to have done that, first there is a ban on all things crypto, them he steals from the government to mine something that is forbidden by the government.China is very strict with their laws, He is lucky he is not getting life sentence, drug dealer or counterfeiter usually get such in China.

[gantez]

First, I think this thread will be better at the legal board.

3.5 years is excessive though jesus. THREE YEARS just for stealing electricity? Man I am glad I don't live in China, sounds like a horrible place to live.

I think a more reasonable sentence is three months, or possibly even just long community service, what a joke.

Yes, and it's quite difficult to get the actual facts of the case. The government there is so corrupt that he might have been arrested just so they could steal his bitcoin and mining hardware, only for some corrupt official to get some more money.

I think a fine in this case would have been enough. Maybe no-jailtime or just a few weeks if it was his first serious offence.

Stealing is classified as a crime and an action so classified is reliable to the penalty of stealing. So, If the guy takes electricity from a source that he is not supposed to, then he should be liable for stealing.

[pozmu]

3.5 years is excessive though jesus. THREE YEARS just for stealing electricity? Man I am glad I don't live in China, sounds like a horrible place to live.

I think a more reasonable sentence is three months, or possibly even just long community service, what a joke.

He stole $15 019 worth of electricity.
We don't know the details, maybe he caused some hazard while doing this?

He mined 3.2BTC worth 120 000 yuan using electricity worth 104 000 yuan as The Paper reports.
I think this is common practice in many countries, I've used to live a man who was stealing power for his household use, wires were visible in the corridor but no one cared  We can only wonder what's happening in datacenters, powerplants etc. when there is such simple way to convert electricity and computing power into money.

Such practice is common in places where there is little or no control over public infrastructure. especially in government buildings where bills are paid directly by the Government.

Yeah, exactly, that's why he chosen railway station as railways are often controlled by government.

[pitiflin]

Although the Chinese regulatory bodies have maintained their distance from cryptocurrencies, it has not deterred the people in the country from partaking in the promising crypto mining industry – as a Chinese man was recently sentenced to 3.5 years in prison for stealing power from a train station to mine Bitcoin (BTC). The incident was reported by the local media outlet The Paper, on October 8, 2018.

https://btcmanager.com/chinese-man-prison-for-stealing-electricity-mine-bitcoin/

Oh well, he took the risk and now he is in jail.  I wonder how much he earn mining bitcoin  because it means that he knows what his doing is wrong but I guess he see the $$$ that's why its worth a try. hehehe.

Its not funny but at the same time its not a clever thing to do either. While there were so many ways to get electricity to mine bitcoin or any crypto, he chose to use Railway Electricity? Are you kidding me?

Stop trying to spread false news firstly, the man got arrested for stealing electricity and not for mining bitcoin, although I can definitely imagine China doing that, but that's not the case right now.

Plus, what was he thinking? He stole electricity and mined bitcoin? Out of all the efficient cryptos, he chose bitcoin, wow. Bitcoin mining is useless unless you have a big mining farm.

[pozmu]

Plus, what was he thinking? He stole electricity and mined bitcoin? Out of all the efficient cryptos, he chose bitcoin, wow. Bitcoin mining is useless unless you have a big mining farm.

I think he had ~800TH of hashing power, 50 ASICs, I think you could call this a farm.
He mined 3.2BTC in 4 months, I would say it's good money when you have free electricity.

[market-beta]

That's a very stupid thing, bro. why have to force yourself when investing / floating bitcoin. the most important thing is that as much effort as we can, do not violate state and religious law

[Indrawan77]

Well stealing is wrong, so the man need to face the consequences, I think its not a smart move to try to steal electricity to mine bitcoin, its very easy to detect electricity theft especially when you run it for 24 hours, and now the person need to pay the fine, the electricity and go to prison, nit a smart way to earn, and one things that catch my attention is the earning from mining is not profitable at all

[kotajikikox]

Sad for him, he need to face their sin to the government laws, stealing of electricity is criminal offense specially herein my country, this news is lesson for all people planning to invest in mining.

[coinwizard_]

I assume it wasn't just an old PC with a graphics card in it, he won't be able to mine much with that setup. Could be a full scale asics setup in a disused train shack, great place to hide and steal, or so he thought

[jseverson]

3.5 years is excessive though jesus. THREE YEARS just for stealing electricity? Man I am glad I don't live in China, sounds like a horrible place to live.

I think a more reasonable sentence is three months, or possibly even just long community service, what a joke.

He apparently stole $15k worth though (if I understood the article correctly anyway), which is already felony theft in the US. I tried to do a little research, and as far as the US goes, it apparently comes with up to 5 years of prison time along with a fine, but it's still largely up to the judge. I know China's human rights record is spotty at best, but this doesn't look overly oppressive to me.

But yeah, play stupid games, win stupid prizes.

[Privatoria]

There are many such thieves now, not only in China. There is a category of people who consider themselves the most intelligent and exceptional, who steal electricity, thinking that if it is invisible, then no one will notice.

[pixie85]

He knew what he was doing. China is against mining, even if you want to pay for electricity and stealing is a crime, even if you're not mining. He combined both of them and got caught. I think that it's a high sentence because he didn't hurt anyone. He stole from the government which is the biggest thief in every country.
Mining is easy if you steal power. The access to mining equipment is easy in China and even old miners are profitable if you have free power.

[kenel]

severe laws will not allow to joke with the authorities of China. but I do not understand why bitcoin?

[stayeduptolate]

Although the Chinese regulatory bodies have maintained their distance from cryptocurrencies, it has not deterred the people in the country from partaking in the promising crypto mining industry – as a Chinese man was recently sentenced to 3.5 years in prison for stealing power from a train station to mine Bitcoin (BTC). The incident was reported by the local media outlet The Paper, on October 8, 2018.

https://btcmanager.com/chinese-man-prison-for-stealing-electricity-mine-bitcoin/

Oh well, he took the risk and now he is in jail.  I wonder how much he earn mining bitcoin  because it means that he knows what his doing is wrong but I guess he see the $$$ that's why its worth a try. hehehe.

In this last passed decade bitcoin has made tremendous progress and now bitcoin is the shining star of the crypto currencies and now it is very huge and most potentiating crypto currency and now there are millions of people around the world who trusts bitcoin and they are investing into it and not only this but there is a craze for bitcoin among bitcoin as they know that bitcoin can make them very rich and thus this is the case when man is prisoned for stealing electricity for mining bitcoin.

[Al-e_x]

wooww, that's amazing, they are never satisfied and very greedy. Bitcoin trading volume in China, investing bitcoin in China, creating a bull market at the end of 2017, they have a big influence on bitcoin volatility.

then, China is also responsible for the bull market today, because China is creating a negative influence on the bitcoin market.

[ImHash]

Wow That's not good you know, Stealing electricity from the government to mine bitcoin is like stealing directly from your own people, It's not just like not paying your taxes but actually stealing electricity which is not yours to use in the first place, That's just stupid if you ask me.

[bloodyvio]

mining bitcoin has become an addiction among the public
especially those who understand cryptocurrency
in my country something like that also happened
there are some people steal electricity to mine crypto
so yeah mining crypto has become addictive for them

[ngm22585]

This is simply wrong, smh.

[h0lybyte]

He mined 3.2BTC worth 120 000 yuan using electricity worth 104 000 yuan as The Paper reports.
I think this is common practice in many countries, I've used to live a man who was stealing power for his household use, wires were visible in the corridor but no one cared  We can only wonder what's happening in datacenters, powerplants etc. when there is such simple way to convert electricity and computing power into money.

Yeah, of course people pften become careless and put themselves in risk when there is money but i am wondering how could he mine this amount of BTC when difficulty is increased to a lot of extreme ?
Which hardware and how much timenhas he been using for this process ?

[Eraldo Coil]

Stealing is always a crime no matter how big or small you stole. In his case stealing electricity is another way of committing a  crime. The company might have filed a case against him because he is stealing. I think he's still lucky because he's in prison right now.

[bitfocus]

as he adopted unfair way to power his rigs, he is supposed to be in jail - we definitely don't want any criminal (big or small) to be a part of the community.

[terencio]

His very creative and unique, but he lives in a county where the laws must be strictly to followed and china just banned people from mining a crypto . He committed two mistakes from stealing and the banning of crypto.

[boakyei]

It is offence in many countries and not only china. You can steal electricity through either your work place or any means to power your bitcoin generation. If you want to go to bitcoin mining , it is better you get your own method of obtaining power.

[Minhxx]

The profit from bitcoin mining makes us desperate, it seems he has gambled to get rich quick in this way.

[qiwoman2]

Ouch, that was a total NO-NO especially in a country like China where they don't take things like this lightly. It just goes to show that if you keep doing stuff that ain't legal, one day or another it is going to catch up with you. This is the main negative thing about this space right now, that we have just too many scammers and hackers and dodgy people being attracted to Crypto which gives it a bad name, yet the technology itself is groundbreaking and could be used to save lives and bring in 2 million unbanked people into the fold.

[supermine]

3.5 years is excessive though jesus. THREE YEARS just for stealing electricity? Man I am glad I don't live in China, sounds like a horrible place to live.

I think a more reasonable sentence is three months, or possibly even just long community service, what a joke.

Its a crime to steal government property its not in China and in many countries they have severe punishment for stealing the electricity or governments good along with big amount of penalty so no one have to do this kind of activity if they don't want get punished.But its the crime done by the person by stealing the electricity so don't concentrate on bitcoins here it is just like crimes as normal.

[steampunkz]

Although the Chinese regulatory bodies have maintained their distance from cryptocurrencies, it has not deterred the people in the country from partaking in the promising crypto mining industry – as a Chinese man was recently sentenced to 3.5 years in prison for stealing power from a train station to mine Bitcoin (BTC). The incident was reported by the local media outlet The Paper, on October 8, 2018.

https://btcmanager.com/chinese-man-prison-for-stealing-electricity-mine-bitcoin/

Oh well, he took the risk and now he is in jail.  I wonder how much he earn mining bitcoin  because it means that he knows what his doing is wrong but I guess he see the $$$ that's why its worth a try. hehehe.

That's really risky to do especially there are lives we are talking about who is using the railway right? It's good that the authority captured the culprit, It may cause an accident if it's not taken care of. There are still many legal ways to mine bitcoin this one is not even funny in my opinion.

[dimiinx]

This is simply wrong, smh.

in my opinion it's wrong because the way it's been wrong especially later and I think the other way is also a lot and I think by borrowing money for mining capital

[dianepot]

Although the Chinese regulatory bodies have maintained their distance from cryptocurrencies, it has not deterred the people in the country from partaking in the promising crypto mining industry – as a Chinese man was recently sentenced to 3.5 years in prison for stealing power from a train station to mine Bitcoin (BTC). The incident was reported by the local media outlet The Paper, on October 8, 2018.

https://btcmanager.com/chinese-man-prison-for-stealing-electricity-mine-bitcoin/

Oh well, he took the risk and now he is in jail.  I wonder how much he earn mining bitcoin   because it means that he knows what his doing is wrong but I guess he see the $$$ that's why its worth a try. hehehe.

I feel sorry for him. Its just right that he have been jailed for his wrong doing. But 3.5 years and money is just too much. He can afford to buy mining rigs, I think the best way if he really wants to mine bitcoin is to transfer to a country where bitcoin is not prohibited. And where did the mined bitcoins go?

[cizatext]

This are the kind of activities that always give bitcoin the bad image we constantly witness because many get involved in several illegal activities all for the sake of earning bitcoin and at the end the government only look at bitcoin as an evil development, bitcoin mining with a stolen power supply will only benefit the user and not the bitcoin network if you truly wish to go into any business activities you should at list be ready to bear the cost rather then manipulating your way to make money.

[esetop01tryba]

I heard that there are shops that sell computers and sellers begin to mine bitcoins from computers that have not yet sold, but as Garth's video is known when mining quickly deteriorates ! I think it's fair to judge such people !

[seoincorporation]

3.5 years in prison for that... that's crazy, i didn't know Chinese laws was that hard... and is fun because in my country is common to see people stealing electricity, They use a technology called devils (diablitos) and looks like this:





And at this point, I have never seen someone go to jail for doing this.

[shield132]

Would love to see following news: Man senteced to prison for stealing electricity from elevator or from metro or etc silly reason. OP I highly doubt he was making $$$ because he would have to mine with multiple miners, which couldn't be unnoticed. I think he was making $ annd mining with 1-2 miner. Would see news if I am wrong.
Btw those people act like a fool and are confident while in reality they are silly.

[Matthewmorris4]

any activity that is essentially stealing electricity for personal gain, and in any country it is an illegal activity and must be dealt with firmly, because later if there are things that are undesirable eat the loss of both parties. the population is harmed by things like this

[VanityWallets2015]

Although the Chinese regulatory bodies have maintained their distance from cryptocurrencies, it has not deterred the people in the country from partaking in the promising crypto mining industry – as a Chinese man was recently sentenced to 3.5 years in prison for stealing power from a train station to mine Bitcoin (BTC). The incident was reported by the local media outlet The Paper, on October 8, 2018.

https://btcmanager.com/chinese-man-prison-for-stealing-electricity-mine-bitcoin/

Oh well, he took the risk and now he is in jail.  I wonder how much he earn mining bitcoin  because it means that he knows what his doing is wrong but I guess he see the $$$ that's why its worth a try. hehehe.

Though there are some rumours about the bitcoin that bitcoin uses very high amount of electricity in its mining and people can suffer large number of problems if this continues as bitcoin mining requires large amount of electricity and there are some rumours that in coming decade bitcoin will be using double the amount of electricity as use by the entire world currently and then there was also news that bitcoin may leads to high global warming and I think this is the major issue and government should look over this.

[burky155]

This guy really crossed the line in here. Bitcoin is banned in China yet he still has the guts to mine bitcoin using stolen power. He should've used his resourcefulness in another way, not in an illegal way. Worst thing is that those BTCs that he mined won't even suffice in paying his bail. Sometimes we really need to think before we do stupid decisions for it may haunt us down and put us behind bars.

Yes i think he has crossed the red line, i don't understand how could he do such a bad and dangerous thing in specially China. I have been there and i know they have very strict rules about the stealing. He should be to clever(!) or maybe desperate.. Sorry for him.. I believe in the karma, if you do something bad it will return you back soon or later..

[munareal]

Such criminality gives Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies a bad name. Bitcoin mining is banned in his country why then use government resources to do an illegality. The sentence of 3.5 years in jail is not hash he committed two crimes stealing and mining Bitcoin that was banned. This should be a deterrent to others

[ganlianshifu1]

In any country, stealing electricity for some private activities will be punished as it should be!
The drop in BTC prices has had the biggest impact on some miners, and their costs have not fallen as BTC prices have fallen!