Chinese Authorities Confiscating miners

[Stanlo]

Chinese authorities have seized nearly 7000 crypto mining machines that are illegally consuming electric power, really hope this won't affect bitcoin in any way? And why are people doing this? Prove of staking is a better option and no one will ever know you are mining anything, i am not saying POW miners are bad but illegally? Come on! It's not worth taking such risk when they know they can be caught, they can earn same profits from Staking

Full news is right here
https://cointelegraph.com/news/chinese-authorities-confiscate-nearly-7-000-crypto-mining-machines

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[el kaka22]

From what I understand by the article I can say that the illegal part of the process wasn't the mining (even tho how china approaches to mining is still a debate) but the illegal electric part.

If you don't get signed up for electricity and don't pay for it, of course you will get all your machines confiscated because government has to get a payment for the electricity that you are using. And we are talking about 7000 machines here, I don't know how many of them were running but if even half of that was using electricity without paying anything to the government I am sorry to say this but they deserved to lose their machines. There are many many places that are mining operations so just one less place won't affect bitcoin that badly, there is nothing to worry about there.

[OasisDre]

There is nothing illegal about mining bitcoin, these confiscated miners are managed by criminals who use electricity illegally, really if they can't pay for electricity why buying asic miners? You have a point that staking coins would have been better, there will be no need for electricity

[codegnome]

From what I understand by the article I can say that the illegal part of the process wasn't the mining (even tho how china approaches to mining is still a debate) but the illegal electric part.

If you don't get signed up for electricity and don't pay for it, of course you will get all your machines confiscated because government has to get a payment for the electricity that you are using. And we are talking about 7000 machines here, I don't know how many of them were running but if even half of that was using electricity without paying anything to the government I am sorry to say this but they deserved to lose their machines. There are many many places that are mining operations so just one less place won't affect bitcoin that badly, there is nothing to worry about there.

If you are using an illegal electric connection (aka stealing electricity) then government has every right to punish you. Here is why Chinese police confiscated the mining equipment.

According to the police, crypto miners were stealing electricity from a nearby village. The police also said that Bitcoin (BTC) mining machines were operating 24 hours a day, consuming electricity at rates up to 40 times those of a regular family.
https://cointelegraph.com/news/chinese-authorities-confiscate-nearly-7-000-crypto-mining-machines

[ansi]

Old new, it's always like that in China when it comes to crypto.
The crypto drama in there is just endless.

[tabas]

Now, it will affect because it seems to be a negative news which do happens mostly. AFAIK in China you are required to apply for licenses but CMIIW.

Prove of staking is a better option and no one will ever know you are mining anything

It's better option for altcoins but for bitcoin PoW is much better and preferred.

[Kotone]

There is no problem in seizing if the Authorities found out that they are illegally using power, of course they have the rights to seize it. They are earning big without much spending on consumption? Should really arrest it. The news will spread and typically creates a fud on bitcoin. It's not btc fault but becoming affected due to misuse of these kind of people.

[CjMapope]

Chinese authorities have seized nearly 7000 crypto mining machines that are illegally consuming electric power, really hope this won't affect bitcoin in any way? And why are people doing this? Prove of staking is a better option and no one will ever know you are mining anything, i am not saying POW miners are bad but illegally? Come on! It's not worth taking such risk when they know they can be caught, they can earn same profits from Staking

Full news is right here
https://cointelegraph.com/news/chinese-authorities-confiscate-nearly-7-000-crypto-mining-machines

in an industry where electricity literally converts into $$$ (btc mining), power cost is king.   
You can pick up old hardware for literally free from so many places if you just come get it off their hands most the time haha
so if you can subsidize your power (or get it for free LEGALLY somehow like a utilities included contract or something), you can really have a good situation
but if you do it ILLEGALLY, well, then your screwed. they make too much noise to not be noticed EVENTUALLY

[TastyChillySauce00]

Mining using illegal resources is like a time bomb, just waiting to be raided by the authority. But, losing 7000 machines is nothing though the difficulty will adjust after 2006 blocks and everything will be fine as if these machines are not exist.

There is no problem in seizing if the Authorities found out that they are illegally using power, of course they have the rights to seize it. They are earning big without much spending on consumption? Should really arrest it. The news will spread and typically creates a fud on bitcoin. It's not btc fault but becoming affected due to misuse of these kind of people.

Don't really think this news will necessarily trigger fud among people anyway.

[Hallmader]

Chinese authorities have seized nearly 7000 crypto mining machines that are illegally consuming electric power, really hope this won't affect bitcoin in any way? And why are people doing this? Prove of staking is a better option and no one will ever know you are mining anything, i am not saying POW miners are bad but illegally? Come on! It's not worth taking such risk when they know they can be caught, they can earn same profits from Staking

Full news is right here
https://cointelegraph.com/news/chinese-authorities-confiscate-nearly-7-000-crypto-mining-machines

If you are doing all your mining stuff legally then I don't see any problem with it. You are not facing any risk of getting your mining stuff confiscated. But if you are mining while cheating or even stealing electricity then expect the government to run after you and confiscate your stuff. That is just as simple as that.

In terms of staking, I am in favor of it compared to mining.

[knuckey]

This regulation applies in any country and if you carry out illegal actions, in this case the use of electricity illegally, the use without paying. So, whatever business you do, if you do it like that or other illegal actions, then you have violated the law and the risk is your business will be stopped, the assets will be confiscated in lieu of state losses.

[Wintersoldier]

If you are doing all your mining stuff legally then I don't see any problem with it. You are not facing any risk of getting your mining stuff confiscated. But if you are mining while cheating or even stealing electricity then expect the government to run after you and confiscate your stuff. That is just as simple as that.

In terms of staking, I am in favor of it compared to mining.

You don't even need to steal electricity or use it illegally for them to confiscate and ban your mining business, it is as easy as not complying with the papers needed for your business to operate that will trigger them to have reason to confiscate and to stop you. Remember, government have a deeper reason why some instances like this is happening, they don't want cryptocurrency right from the start so it will be easy for them to pass regulation that when we just fail to comply even with simple terms then we are getting compromised.

[Harriti]

Chinese authorities have seized nearly 7000 crypto mining machines that are illegally consuming electric power, really hope this won't affect bitcoin in any way? And why are people doing this? Prove of staking is a better option and no one will ever know you are mining anything, i am not saying POW miners are bad but illegally? Come on! It's not worth taking such risk when they know they can be caught, they can earn same profits from Staking

Full news is right here
https://cointelegraph.com/news/chinese-authorities-confiscate-nearly-7-000-crypto-mining-machines

wow, this will definitely affect Bitcoin's supply and its price in the near future. Actually, mining is legal for the crypto market in China but it seems that the owner of this business did not explicitly declare its form and led to the incident as it is now.
Staking is one of the most profitable investments right now, but staking is happening at quite a few alts with an unstable price. So if the market is down, we do Staking, it will be much risky than making PoW.

[Kyraishi]

Sensationalist reporting yet again.

As others have said it's because of the fact that they're illegally consuming electricity that they have been seized - not because mining is intrinsically illegal per se.

And even though China has been hostile on miners overall I doubt that if you were mining on an individual basis there would be any enforceability of any restrictions put on miners. Of course big corporations have all moved overseas because regulation for them is a lot tighter.

[Vishnu.Reang]

It is really irritating to see these clickbait articles. The Chinese authorities arrested a group of miners for power theft and the OP tweaked the title to give an impression that they got arrested for mining coins. I have seen dozens of threads claiming that the Chinese authorities are going to launch a crackdown on Bitcoin mining. I am seeing such threads ever since I joined this forum three years back. And till now, none of these threats have got realized.

[FireBallex]

People around me still mine coins using free electricity, which is illegal and they have been doing this for more than a year now, in my own country security and laws are not taken very serious so they can get away with this, i prefer POS coins because they don't require any skill

[Aabcde]

It's just a matter of miners' behavior not about POW or POS. Both are freely chosen by anyone. Incidentally the miners utilize illegal electricity which certainly gives them more profit because they do not need to pay their electricity bills. Every country will do the same for these illegal miners.
After all, these miners must have had a good calculation where they were prepared to risk being caught. This risk is proportional to the results they get rather than having to stake. I think so.

[adjed]

I know that the Chinese Government said that it's blockchain and not Cryptocurrencies but it seems they are going out of their way to cripple the existing Cryptocurrency infrastructure, it might just be a way to clear away all competition so that when their own coin launches, it would be just them exclusively in their country but one thing they fail to see is that if they are claiming that it's just Blockchain and not Cryptocurrencies, then launching their own Cryptocurrency makes absolutely no sense so I tend to believe that this is just an attempt to clear all competition. This is just an example of Governments being Governments, they claim to want decentralisation but they still want to control the power.

[okala]

Chinese authorities have seized nearly 7000 crypto mining machines that are illegally consuming electric power, really hope this won't affect bitcoin in any way? And why are people doing this? Prove of staking is a better option and no one will ever know you are mining anything, i am not saying POW miners are bad but illegally? Come on! It's not worth taking such risk when they know they can be caught, they can earn same profits from Staking

Full news is right here
https://cointelegraph.com/news/chinese-authorities-confiscate-nearly-7-000-crypto-mining-machines

Mining with government Generated power is bad and it is not the right thing to. I believe this news should even influence bitcoin positively as the number of bitcoin to mine will reduce. I hope and believe other miner will learn lessons from this and do the right things.

[Ucy]

Word to note: "illegally". The miners probably stole energy to mine Bitcoin? Well, it is justice if that was what really happened, if not, what specifically did they do wrong? Is paying for electricity & using it, now illegal in the country?

Proof of stake could get you into trouble in the future too when there is policy change against buying coins to stake. Look at how centralized staking platforms are springing up to centralize the whole thing like they are currently doing with trading.
I believe something better will replace them in the future