Police Destroy 1,069 Bitcoin Miners With Steamroller In Malaysia

[stompix]

They didn't destroy this machine only they distroy the hope of others of that country.

Hopes of getting rich by stealing?

I don't know which country from this video because some country says its from china or some says its from Malaysia.

Read the topic, there is enough info in it to cast aside any doubt.

What ever but the government kill our freedom.

Freedom to steal? Never heard of that one!

Its really affect soo much on crypto price not Only that some people sell their crypto to buy second hand car or some goods. Because of this type of FUD.

Why should anyone sell their coins because some electric energy thieves were caught? It's just stupid.
And about the FUD, where is the uncertainty and doubt in this story? Those are actual facts, so it is more of a FAF!

People in my country are literally stealing electricity in order to mine cryptocurrencies.
I guess that's why some governments are hostile towards cryptocurrency mining and the mining hardware.

It's not just one country, everybody does, it happened even in the UK so If anyone thinks it's a third world country thing no, it's not, the western world has its own cases, the only difference between countries might be in the cause of concern, some would focus on the actual value of the stolen energy and some on the problems caused to the grid.

If somebody starts such an operation in a small village it's going to cause a lot of them, that's close to 1.5 MW of energy added 24/7 even at peak hours, assuming those were s9 and the average household consumption of 935kwh per household in Malaysia that means the farm consumed on average as much as 13 000 houses in the country.

[avikz]

The reason for these operation is that these miners were stealing electricity. But it seems that the enforcement agencies have gone beyond thier call of duty by destroying these mining rigs. I am sure some of the seized mining rigs will end up at the home of some policemen if they know where it needs to be used. But that's everywhere.

In my country,  police used to raid DVD centers where pirated DVD used to be created. Majority of these seized DVDs usually ended up with the children of those policemen. Funny but the sad reality of misusing the power.

[iTradeChips]

Kind of a waste tbh. They could've used it themselves or something instead of just, well, doing this. It's an absolute waste of resources and destroying them brings no benefit to any side. Even if we consider it from a political stance, it doesn't seem like it actually has any result at all? Not to mention that it isn't strictly Bitcoin their blaming but rather the illegal stealing of energy/electricity that the mining rigs no? Simply speaking, it's them enforcing the law.

Still looks quite a waste to me though.

Same as with the dozens of lamborghinis and ferraris and ducatis that were bulldozered in the Philippines last year. Was able to enter the country illegally without proper taxation. So these smuggled goods, instead of being sold to the highest bidder in an auction, it was instead destroyed as an example to those who will attempt to smuggle good in the country without following the proper process. Same as with the rigs stealing electricity. It is a wrong doing so it should not be shown as a political act but as a criminal act.

[NeuroticFish]

Kind of a waste tbh.
~

Same as with the dozens of lamborghinis and ferraris and ducatis that were bulldozered in the Philippines last year. Was able to enter the country illegally without proper taxation. So these smuggled goods, instead of being sold to the highest bidder in an auction, it was instead destroyed as an example to those who will attempt to smuggle good in the country without following the proper process. Same as with the rigs stealing electricity. It is a wrong doing so it should not be shown as a political act but as a criminal act.

While it may be a stronger message if they destroy the goods publicly (and the information may go viral), I also agree that's a waste (especially with the chip shortage lately) and they could have monetized them (e.g. sell them) to recover some of the "damage" caused by those who were stealing.

[aysg76]

The government will always try to curb such mining related activities and give electricity consumption and carbon footprint excuses ignoring how much energy the other sector uses despite of their output is   not what btc is delivering to the people.But what Malaysia government has done actually is to showcase miners that if you indulge in any sort of crypto fraud and electricity theft you would be charged and machinery would be destroyed and it seems to be practical somehow because they have not banned mining or btc trading but only caught the miners who were consuming electricity without payment.So they get punished under this act as miners are earning from rewards so they should not make such tricks to make money and enjoy freedom of mining.

[oHnK]

I don't think that was a bad idea, because as long as I know in the police institution which is responsible for applying the policy about mitigation, controlling, education and literation, until cases handling. They have their own standard operating procedure that should be applied such as handling of evidence. The main topic of this news is about the destruction of evidence of a criminal case of theft of electricity in BTC mining. We understand that this is a criminal case, no one can defend their criminal case but when we talk about the evidence, whether the police destroy the evidence and that was right or this is just a political issue? In my point of view, this is just the way to educate society not to do the same thing, and if it is allowed to be auctioned, then it will cause a new problem.

[Vishnu.Reang]

I don't get the purpose of steamrolling the machines and destroying them. If the intention is to deter Bitcoin mining or electricity theft, then I don't think that it will send a strong message. Those who are behind this power theft would have already cashed out the coins. The authorities could have auctioned the mining rigs and collected some money that could have at least partially reimbursed their losses. IMO, it was an emotional decision to destroy the mining rigs. Unless the culprits are very sensitive individuals, they are not going to care about it.

[masterrex]

The Malaysian authorities action is very clear and it was a strong message, that stealing electricity in their country to mine Bitcoin will face the same fate, and I think it is a very effective public warning for future offenders, but on the other side destroying $1.2 Million worth mining machines is not efficient, why just destroy some of them to show and send the message to the public and most of it will be sold for an auction? anyway, it was just my opinion.

But in terms of Bitcoin and cryptocurrency being banned, I guess the Malaysian regulators are not so serious about it because since 2017-2018 a lot of rumors about the possible Bitcoin and cryptocurrency trading banned in Malaysia but until now it's not yet happening. I guess the Malaysian financial authorities are carefully studying the case.

[Kakmakr]

I think it is absolute stupidity, because Malaysia is not a very "rich" country and a lot of the citizens are struggling.....     I saw the video on TikTok for the first time and they said it was in China.. so I kind of accepted it, because we know what government they have.

I would have used those miners to subsidize small mining farms for the people who are unemployed or just sell them to international buyers and take the proceeds of that and pushed it back into the economy to reduce the tax burden or to subsidize job creation or funding for small informal businesses.

Why does authorities take poor decisions like this? (Just doing it to score political points with the Banks...or voters that are apposed to Crypto currencies)

[lablab03]

I saw this video recently on Twitter and some users claiming it's on China, really FUD and fake news, lol.

thanks for exposing this kind of news, i thought there will be another down trend in the market. Lol  btw that's really sad news because how of many of those machine that they destroyed and it's was so expensive.. I saw some news from china that they transfer all of those mining equipment to another country. But this one seems different.. 

[bekti3]

Again this is due to the impact of China, which has a huge effect on all views of each country. there is anti-China, there is anti-communist and so on. into the political sector and even I think Bitcoin needs to be saved from this kind of thinking. there is no political element contained in it. So far, the case in Malaysia has not been further clarified by the Ministry of Economy.

[UserU]

Is crypto banned in Malaysia?

If miners doing it illegally and stealing electricity or any illegal activity that against their country just to continue mining, that deserves to be them seizing their mining rigs or mining equipment and being destroyed, I remember this the same case here in my country when there's a backdoor or smuggled cigarette that being seized they destroy them all so that didn't use anymore.

We might do mining without stealing electricity and might we're fine if crypto doesn't ban in our country.

Trading crypto isn't illegal, as there are only three licensed entities; Luno, Tokenize and SINEGY. Still, the amount of red tapes are hell aplenty hence why big players like Binance couldn't/ wouldn't set their foot there.

Meanwhile, adoption is pretty much in its infancy stage since eWallets adoptions are actively encouraged by the government instead.

I think it is absolute stupidity, because Malaysia is not a very "rich" country and a lot of the citizens are struggling.....     I saw the video on TikTok for the first time and they said it was in China.. so I kind of accepted it, because we know what government they have.

Malaysia is rich in terms of oil and rubber exports but the political landscape makes it look like some third-world shithole. Lots of politicking, race and religions cards thrown about. Even during this pandemic.

[pawanjain]

The answer to your question was in the article

mining Bitcoin activities has caused frequent power outages,

PoW is a technical dead end, as it is designed as a winner take all system that uses up all available energy.
* Note the increased energy used does nothing to increase performance only supposed security, which is also false,
since bitcoin security is really the 4 mining pool operators that agree not to collude and doublespend, so energy used is irrelevant. *

China Permanently banned Bitcoin mining because of PoW threat to their power grid,
Iran has temporary banned bitcoin mining because of PoW threat to their power grid, expect this to become permanent within a year.

At the end of the day the destruction of a power grid is becoming a greater risk than any sane person will accept.
Which is why you see videos like above as they want it known, no PoW miners should ever try mining their again.

Bitcoin users have no one to blame except the bitcoin developers who have ignored this energy wasting issue since 2013.

The current PoW ASIC energy sucking system will be banned by all governments in time,
so that mean bitcoin either gets banned with it or finally goes to a new design.
 

I don't really think that all the governments would start banning bitcoin because of it's energy usage.
That's pretty lame to be honest because there are many other industries which uses more energy than bitcoin.
Further more, even if governments decide to move towards green energy or renewable energy I think it will take a lot of time before that will happen.
Also, we may or may not need a hard fork for the migration since many would still like to continue with the current chain.

[ziennakarishma21]

I have read through the news about this and still don't know if it's true or just a fake news, confusing all investors about the cryptocurrency that is about to be boycotted. I really don't understand why there are people who hate BTC so much.

[maju69]

I saw this video recently on Twitter and some users claiming it's on China, really FUD and fake news, lol.
This is another crime that some governments will start to become strict with cryptocurrency, but for me, Bitcoin got nothing to do with it, people are.

In some country too they are destroying some items that are involved with crime, one of the example are smuggled items, like cars. They are destroying them in public, so in this case, it was almost the same case, doing publicity.

I didn't hear that information coming from the Malaysian government? Or maybe I haven't found accurate information based on the media in Malaysia. Most of this information only triggers Malaysia to be anti-China, even though they are dominated by various products, which clearly work well together. Bitcoin mining material there still doesn't sound like it has a big place.

[Renampun]

...

how can they make it look like Bitcoin mining tools are like drugs or other prohibited items...

Malaysian government and police are famous for their arrogance. however, it is just a machine and not used for crime. watching that video makes me want to slap all the authorities there

[UserU]

I have read through the news about this and still don't know if it's true or just a fake news, confusing all investors about the cryptocurrency that is about to be boycotted. I really don't understand why there are people who hate BTC so much.

It's legit, it came out in the local as well as international news:

https://www.pcmag.com/news/malaysian-police-crush-1069-bitcoin-mining-rigs-using-a-steamroller
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/07/19/malaysian-police-steamroll-1point25-million-worth-of-bitcoin-mining-rigs.html

[romero121]

I have read through the news about this and still don't know if it's true or just a fake news, confusing all investors about the cryptocurrency that is about to be boycotted. I really don't understand why there are people who hate BTC so much.

This is not about the people hating the usage of bitcoin. It is clear, someone is playing behind through the government. However Malaysian government hasn't made any statement against mining or usage of cryptocurrency. These are all the move from Malaysia upon the decisions from China. Even this can be a market manipulation, because people aren't evident on the incident. Some believe it true whereas the rest believe it as a fake news.

[dothebeats]

I don't think they are doing this to gain the favor of China at all. Some news state that the operators of the mining operation were stealing power to continue their operations, hence why the government destroyed their equipment to send a message that such actions were intolerable and will net such repercussions. I don't think cryptocurrencies are frowned upon on Malaysia, as they are one of the movers of crypto in their region and that they also have established crypto exchanges.

[wxa7115]

Is it fair to say a political statement is being made here? Malaysia is doing this as a gesture of appeasement towards china's hard anti bitcoin stance.

Initially, china banned crypto mining. Many miners relocated their equipment to other countries, or sold them online. The evolution of this process is malaysia now destroying mining units to prevent them from being relocated or sold.

Is there a legitimate motive for outright destroying mining units. Rather than auctioning or selling them. Aside from politics?

I do not know the legal status of bitcoin or bitcoin mining in Malaysia, if it is illegal then they may not have any other option but to destroy those miners as they cannot legally sell the units themselves otherwise they could be breaking the law, and to store them will be a waste of time and money, in which case it would not be a political demonstration but just a practical solution.

But if bitcoin or bitcoin mining are not illegal then maybe they are doing in this in order to avoid that someone does the same thing those that were behind the operation did, so in this case it still makes sense, however we cannot discard that as you say this was a political demonstration to try to appease China and give the impression they are willing to follow the same policy they are.