US Government Bans Professor for Mining Bitcoin with A Supercomputer

[ShakyhandsBTCer]

There was an article, I believe in 2012 that said some guy who was in charge of IT at a middle school was using like 50+ computers to CPU mine bitcoins. This was back when CPU mining was still viable.

I tried to find the article you referenced.

Perhaps you meant the Australian Broadcasting Company?

http://www.crikey.com.au/2011/06/22/tips-and-rumours-481/

http://delimiter.com.au/2012/05/21/the-abc-didnt-sack-bitcoin-miner/

I don't think it was either of those. Although both of those articles were I believe talking about the same incident.

If I remember correctly it was in PA.

It was almost certainly a school and I think the guy was doing it over the summer.

[Yakamoto]

To be honest, this guy got what was coming. He shouldn't have been using it without permission for personal interests, and as such he was banned from working with the gov't.

Unless you think that the money you spend on taxes should be pumped into another individual's attempt at wealth, you should think this is the best thing to be done.

I wonder how fast he mined though. Probably multiple terrahashes...

[row5_seat47]

To be honest, this guy got what was coming.

WSJ says its still under investigation.  Basically he didn't  "get" whatever "is coming" yet

"A representative of the agency said the investigation is ongoing, and should be complete before the September report."

http://blogs.wsj.com/moneybeat/2014/06/09/bitbeat-like-a-hurricane-cointerras-giant-bitcoin-mining-plant/

 

[Lethn]

Why did I laugh so hard at this?

I don't know but I did as well

[Yakamoto]

To be honest, this guy got what was coming.

WSJ says its still under investigation.  Basically he didn't  "get" whatever "is coming" yet

"A representative of the agency said the investigation is ongoing, and should be complete before the September report."

http://blogs.wsj.com/moneybeat/2014/06/09/bitbeat-like-a-hurricane-cointerras-giant-bitcoin-mining-plant/

 

He got banned, not much else to it.

He was using it without permission (*Assumed) and so the ban is what he got for doing that.

[Magic8Ball]

Why did I laugh so hard at this?

Was not even worth it.

He did not make much, and now he is the laughing stock.

[ajareselde]

Awesome, if they only knew all similar cases .. oh well sush-shush better play it safe
he should have mined that primecoin, afterall its for science purpuses

[Lethn]

Why did I laugh so hard at this?

Was not even worth it.

He did not make much, and now he is the laughing stock.

He could have easily made a ton if he picked a couple of altcoins. to mine instead, clearly he didn't do enough research before going into it and didn't understand difficulty, but his experiment did tell us one thing, a 51% attack is extremely unlikely because of the cost, which we've known all along, but it was nice to see it confirmed.

[JorgeStolfi]

There is as much fraud and embezzlement in academia as in most any other professions.  I know several cases in my own department and university that are much worse than that one, in terms of amount of taxpayers money pocketed illegally.

Bitcoiners should not gloat too much, though.  This may have been a healthy community of hopeful, honest, idealist hackers at the beginning, when bitcoins were worthless tokens in an obscure computer science experiment.  But, since then, all the crooks in the  world -- from the street vendor who sold fake hello kitty stuff, to the Russian mafia, and to Wall Street sharks -- have discovered bitcoin, fell in love with it, and immediately aimed their skills at it.  I sometimes doubt that there is now one bitcoin-related enterprise that makes money without swindling someone. 

[JorgeStolfi]

He could have easily made a ton if he picked a couple of altcoins. to mine instead, clearly he didn't do enough research before going into it

If the incident happeneed 2 years ago, then there were no altcoins around at the time, were there?

[ShakyhandsBTCer]

Why did I laugh so hard at this?

Was not even worth it.

He did not make much, and now he is the laughing stock.

He could have easily made a ton if he picked a couple of altcoins. to mine instead, clearly he didn't do enough research before going into it and didn't understand difficulty, but his experiment did tell us one thing, a 51% attack is extremely unlikely because of the cost, which we've known all along, but it was nice to see it confirmed.

What he should have done was mine on a multipool for scrypt coins.

[Harley997]

He could have easily made a ton if he picked a couple of altcoins. to mine instead, clearly he didn't do enough research before going into it

If the incident happeneed 2 years ago, then there were no altcoins around at the time, were there?

I think LTC may have just been getting started then.

[Magic8Ball]

Why did I laugh so hard at this?

Was not even worth it.

He did not make much, and now he is the laughing stock.

He could have easily made a ton if he picked a couple of altcoins. to mine instead, clearly he didn't do enough research before going into it and didn't understand difficulty, but his experiment did tell us one thing, a 51% attack is extremely unlikely because of the cost, which we've known all along, but it was nice to see it confirmed.

Nice to see a professor not doing research

Could have just played chess on that machine and got more joy.

[Harley997]

Why did I laugh so hard at this?

Was not even worth it.

He did not make much, and now he is the laughing stock.

He could have easily made a ton if he picked a couple of altcoins. to mine instead, clearly he didn't do enough research before going into it and didn't understand difficulty, but his experiment did tell us one thing, a 51% attack is extremely unlikely because of the cost, which we've known all along, but it was nice to see it confirmed.

Nice to see a professor not doing research

Could have just played chess on that machine and got more joy.

I don't think that is what tenured professors do.

He was doing some kind of research it just turned out to be what the university did not like/approve of

[JorgeStolfi]

I don't think that is what tenured professors do.
He was doing some kind of research it just turned out to be what the university did not like/approve of

What he was doing was not research, obviously.  

"Research is what I am doing when I don't know what I am doing."(*)  He knew very well that that he was making money.  

(*) I have seen that definition attributed to Von Braun and to Einstein, possibly with different words.

[Harley997]

I don't think that is what tenured professors do.
He was doing some kind of research it just turned out to be what the university did not like/approve of

What he was doing was not research, obviously.  

"Research is what I am doing when I don't know what I am doing."(*)  He knew very well that that he was making money.  

(*) I have seen that definition attributed to Von Braun and to Einstein, possibly with different words.

He claimed that he was doing research and I think he should be given the benefit of the doubt.

Yes he was mining bitcoin, however there are several scientific questions about bitcoin that he could have possibly have been researching.

[JorgeStolfi]

He claimed that he was doing research and I think he should be given the benefit of the doubt.

Could be...  but if he kept the mined coins for himself, then there would not be much room for doubt, I'm afraid

[ShakyhandsBTCer]

He claimed that he was doing research and I think he should be given the benefit of the doubt.

Could be...  but if he kept the mined coins for himself, then there would not be much room for doubt, I'm afraid

He kept the earned bitcoin, but there are still very valid research purposes.

He could have easily have been trying to test gambling sites, tumbling sites, and number of the illicit sites with the earned coins.

[Yakamoto]

He claimed that he was doing research and I think he should be given the benefit of the doubt.

Could be...  but if he kept the mined coins for himself, then there would not be much room for doubt, I'm afraid

He kept the earned bitcoin, but there are still very valid research purposes.

He could have easily have been trying to test gambling sites, tumbling sites, and number of the illicit sites with the earned coins.

We need more people like the above poster in the world! (As much as I know it's sarcasm, I'm playing along).

Don't you see everyone? Just because he did something without permission doesn't mean he's not researching! He probably used those coins to research delivery speed from a number of BTC websites, or did the research to see how long it would take for inflation to render the money made from the coins minuscule!

Silly government!

[row5_seat47]

I don't think it was either of those. ...

If I remember correctly it was in PA.

It was almost certainly a school and I think the guy was doing it over the summer.

Found it

How to Get Rich on Bitcoin, By a System Administrator Who's Secretly Growing Them On His School's Computers
by RYAN BRODERICK May 27, 2011

http://motherboard.vice.com/blog/how-to-get-rich-on-bitcoin-by-a-system-administrator-who-s-secretly-growing-them-on-his-school-s-computers