Hi, I have a silly question but a friend of mine just bought an ASIC from a private person and after the sale the guy told him that the ASIC was stolen or I don't know what (we don't know more, the seller doesn't answer anymore ^^), yet the ASIC works perfectly according to my friend, so my question is to know if with a stolen ASIC he risks something? Like since an ASIC must be connected in ethernet it can be traced or not at all?
Honestly depends on where the miners were stolen, and from whom. The chances of it getting tracked are greater than zero and instances like the one linked above have taken place.
He might get lucky and nothing happens, however, it is not a good idea to use stolen property for any use, let alone mining.
Even if he mines to a hardware wallet, the funds will be dirtied.