Stealing Electricity the next big thing?

[masterzman]

Before I type my little idea scenario here, I am not advocating the use of these ideas.  

For some reason I cannot stop thinking about what to do with all this leftover mining equipment when difficulty and electric cost make my S3 miners unprofitable. My imagination runs wild with ideas. I read on bitcointalk ideas for using miners as space heaters while obvious generating small amounts of bitcoin. What a great idea! Of course taking into account cost, electric efficiency, and heat output of a space heater and comparing it to a bitcoin miner. This again has me thinking.

We hear about “botnets” or these big malware viruses that can be downloaded on a victim’s computer and then start mining bitcoin for a perpetrator. One computer might not add up to a lot of bitcoin, but spread it out over 100,000 downloaders and I’m sure it starts becoming profitable. However, the same rule applies to these malware creators as it does miners. Difficulty will always raise making the operation less profitable as time goes on. Instead of stealing computer resources to mine bitcoin, crypto-crooks will have to move on to something else. Electricity.

Here’s a scenario I see happening in the future. S3 miners become no longer efficient because of electricity rates and difficulty. They drop in price and are very affordable. Crypto-crook “Steve” attaches a wifi antenna to his S3 board heads to the nearest Starbucks, or even a nice highway rest area. Steve slides a piece of the drop ceiling out of place in the bathroom, and taps into the electricity from the florescent light. He plugs in his S3 miner, and connects it to the free wifi. There you have it, Steve is now running a rig that is virtually untraceable if found, and will run until it IS found. Or until it burns down the building lol. Which is another thing we might see.

We see reports of people using workplace servers to mine bitcoin, and there is always chatter in the forums about moving into a college dorm with electric included and running a few miners. Imagine a tech guy at a small but busy doctor’s office throwing an S3 miner on the server rack. No one would question it unless a new tech guy got hired.

Do you guys think electricity theft or even just ‘scheming’ with included electricity is going to turn into a big thing once we hit our climax of ASIC hardware? I think we are going to see some clever and useful, but also dangerous and illegal activates start taking place.

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[philipma1957]

Before I type my little idea scenario here, I am not advocating the use of these ideas.  

For some reason I cannot stop thinking about what to do with all this leftover mining equipment when difficulty and electric cost make my S3 miners unprofitable. My imagination runs wild with ideas. I read on bitcointalk ideas for using miners as space heaters while obvious generating small amounts of bitcoin. What a great idea! Of course taking into account cost, electric efficiency, and heat output of a space heater and comparing it to a bitcoin miner. This again has me thinking.

We hear about “botnets” or these big malware viruses that can be downloaded on a victim’s computer and then start mining bitcoin for a perpetrator. One computer might not add up to a lot of bitcoin, but spread it out over 100,000 downloaders and I’m sure it starts becoming profitable. However, the same rule applies to these malware creators as it does miners. Difficulty will always raise making the operation less profitable as time goes on. Instead of stealing computer resources to mine bitcoin, crypto-crooks will have to move on to something else. Electricity.

Here’s a scenario I see happening in the future. S3 miners become no longer efficient because of electricity rates and difficulty. They drop in price and are very affordable. Crypto-crook “Steve” attaches a wifi antenna to his S3 board heads to the nearest Starbucks, or even a nice highway rest area. Steve slides a piece of the drop ceiling out of place in the bathroom, and taps into the electricity from the florescent light. He plugs in his S3 miner, and connects it to the free wifi. There you have it, Steve is now running a rig that is virtually untraceable if found, and will run until it IS found. Or until it burns down the building lol. Which is another thing we might see.

We see reports of people using workplace servers to mine bitcoin, and there is always chatter in the forums about moving into a college dorm with electric included and running a few miners. Imagine a tech guy at a small but busy doctor’s office throwing an S3 miner on the server rack. No one would question it unless a new tech guy got hired.

Do you guys think electricity theft or even just ‘scheming’ with included electricity is going to turn into a big thing once we hit our climax of ASIC hardware? I think we are going to see some clever and useful, but also dangerous and illegal activates start taking place.

yes it will happen more and more.

the s-3 is good for this but the s-1 is also good.

People will do this I can see college students doing it.  Hey my neighbor is on vacation a lot during the summer.  Plugging in a 100 foot extension cord into his backyard outlet would be easy to do.  A businessman that use hotels  a lot hooking up an s-3 is a snap in a hotel room.  I would think the asicminer tube would be very nice to use in a hotel room.  send the coins to a paper wallet.

[xstr8guy]

Interesting post. But the reality is much different.

Who is going to go through all that trouble and risk for (currently) $4 per day to hide an S3 in a Starbucks ceiling. Equally as ridiculous is a traveling businessman lugging an S3 in his suitcase so he can plug it in a hotel room. The TSA would be pretty curious about that strange machine in your luggage.

Of course it might be worthwhile if you were talking about an SP30. But trying to hide that in a place where it wouldn't immediately be heard would be virtually impossible.

Now the extension cord to the neighbor's house, I quite like that idea. Lol.

[philipma1957]

Interesting post. But the reality is much different.

Who is going to go through all that trouble and risk for (currently) $4 per day to hide an S3 in a Starbucks ceiling. Equally as ridiculous is a traveling businessman lugging an S3 in his suitcase so he can plug it in a hotel room. The TSA would be pretty curious about that strange machine in your luggage.

Of course it might be worthwhile if you were talking about an SP30. But trying to hide that in a place where it wouldn't immediately be heard would be virtually impossible.

Now the extension cord to the neighbor's house, I quite like that idea. Lol.

Well the really good ideas  I am leaving out  and believe me  there are more then one.

[DrG]

Great now we're resorting to the potential of theft.  Again it will be more profitable to bully seniors in a grocery store parking lot than it would be to sneak a miner into Starbucks.  If that things ever gets tracked back to you by serial number or fingerprints I can't imagine the number of crimes you could be charged with.

[xstr8guy]

Great now we're resorting to the potential of theft.  Again it will be more profitable to bully seniors in a grocery store parking lot than it would be to sneak a miner into Starbucks.  If that things ever gets tracked back to you by serial number or fingerprints I can't imagine the number of crimes you could be charged with.

Really, there's good money in bullying seniors? I'll have to research that. Is there a forum on the topic?  

[railzand]

Great now we're resorting to the potential of theft.  Again it will be more profitable to bully seniors in a grocery store parking lot than it would be to sneak a miner into Starbucks.  If that things ever gets tracked back to you by serial number or fingerprints I can't imagine the number of crimes you could be charged with.

Really, there's good money in bullying seniors? I'll have to research that. Is there a forum on the topic?  

bitcointalk.org

[DrG]

Great now we're resorting to the potential of theft.  Again it will be more profitable to bully seniors in a grocery store parking lot than it would be to sneak a miner into Starbucks.  If that things ever gets tracked back to you by serial number or fingerprints I can't imagine the number of crimes you could be charged with.

Really, there's good money in bullying seniors? I'll have to research that. Is there a forum on the topic?  

Well they're guaranteed to have some hard candy, some loose change, a handkerchief and a whole bunch of keys in their pockets so I like to hold them upside down and shake them.  Those Werther's Original are too damn good to pass up.

Seriously it comes down to risk vs benefit.  What kind of trouble are you risking by blatantly stealing from a company and violating it's open access internet policy vs what you have to gain ($4/day as noted above and falling every 11 days).

[Kluge]

Interesting post. But the reality is much different.

Who is going to go through all that trouble and risk for (currently) $4 per day to hide an S3 in a Starbucks ceiling. Equally as ridiculous is a traveling businessman lugging an S3 in his suitcase so he can plug it in a hotel room. The TSA would be pretty curious about that strange machine in your luggage.

Of course it might be worthwhile if you were talking about an SP30. But trying to hide that in a place where it wouldn't immediately be heard would be virtually impossible.

Now the extension cord to the neighbor's house, I quite like that idea. Lol.

More than a third of the people on Earth make less than $2 per day, only counting wage-earners. In reality, it's probably significantly over half who earn less than $2/day. $4/day, then, is MASSIVE for most people, and well worth the risk.

[xstr8guy]

Interesting post. But the reality is much different.

Who is going to go through all that trouble and risk for (currently) $4 per day to hide an S3 in a Starbucks ceiling. Equally as ridiculous is a traveling businessman lugging an S3 in his suitcase so he can plug it in a hotel room. The TSA would be pretty curious about that strange machine in your luggage.

Of course it might be worthwhile if you were talking about an SP30. But trying to hide that in a place where it wouldn't immediately be heard would be virtually impossible.

Now the extension cord to the neighbor's house, I quite like that idea. Lol.

More than a third of the people on Earth make less than $2 per day, only counting wage-earners. In reality, it's probably significantly over half who earn less than $2/day. $4/day, then, is MASSIVE for most people, and well worth the risk.

Point taken. But I don't think it's likely that those people are buying a lot of ASICs.

[Corenin]

Guys, the question is how much electricity can u steal? you risk your S3 which worth way more.

[TrevorS]

Great now we're resorting to the potential of theft.  Again it will be more profitable to bully seniors in a grocery store parking lot than it would be to sneak a miner into Starbucks.  If that things ever gets tracked back to you by serial number or fingerprints I can't imagine the number of crimes you could be charged with.

Really, there's good money in bullying seniors? I'll have to research that. Is there a forum on the topic?  

Well, I'm a senior, so just because we're on Social Security, doesn't mean it's appropriate to try to take advantage of us.  Believe it or not, we're human beings too!

[DrG]

Interesting post. But the reality is much different.

Who is going to go through all that trouble and risk for (currently) $4 per day to hide an S3 in a Starbucks ceiling. Equally as ridiculous is a traveling businessman lugging an S3 in his suitcase so he can plug it in a hotel room. The TSA would be pretty curious about that strange machine in your luggage.

Of course it might be worthwhile if you were talking about an SP30. But trying to hide that in a place where it wouldn't immediately be heard would be virtually impossible.

Now the extension cord to the neighbor's house, I quite like that idea. Lol.

More than a third of the people on Earth make less than $2 per day, only counting wage-earners. In reality, it's probably significantly over half who earn less than $2/day. $4/day, then, is MASSIVE for most people, and well worth the risk.

That is true.  But what is also true is that those people making less than $2 will never see the inside of a Starbucks.  They would have to save a year's salary to buy an S3.  So unless they're being transported by the Starship Enterprise into a Starbuck's false ceiling with an S3 and WiFi in hand it's not happening for them.

So back to us westerners who don't need transporter technology, $3/day after the next difficulty...

[Mirdude]

That would be committing a crime, if you were found out, you'd be in deep trouble. 

[gallery2000]

This is a better scenario:

You are going to divorce your wife.  She is going to get the house as a divorce settlement.

Before you hand the keys to her,  you hide 50 s3 in the attic and turn them on to start mining.  Your ex wife is clueless so she would not know why her electricity is so high each month.  She will ask you why.  You tell her that you will help her fix the problem.  You came to the house and found 50 s3 in the attic.  Your ex wife thanks you and you guys got together.

[crocko]

How about the green energy  ?
I heard rumors that a wind energy generator can operate everywhere if its height is at least 20 meter.
Can someone confirm this?

[AmDD]

How about the green energy  ?
I heard rumors that a wind energy generator can operate everywhere if its height is at least 20 meter.
Can someone confirm this?

The problem there is the cost to setup. It's very expensive to only produce a few bucks worth of power a month.

[notlist3d]

Think about this.... they find a unknown electronic device... with cords... and antenna.... i can see this going bad.  Chances are they will not know it's a bitcoin miner, there are alot of worse case scenario.   I truly hope no one resorts to this.

I see professional hosting as a much better option, no crime.  And also if your lucky hosting them at your home.

I do see grey areas like colleges and university's not liking mining and coming out with rules in future.  A lot of apartment complex's have a peek electricity cost where. it's locked in (one in the past i had was 25 dollars fee).  This was obviously meant for heating/cooling of apartment.  I didn't mine in it as it just was not worth it at the time as I was doing lots of GPU's and had them hosted elsewhere.  Also dorms i can see college kids buying throwing one under the bed or in closet in dorm room.

I hope theft is not the future or outdated gear.   I like that Bitmain is doing a upgrade kit that is a great reuse of hardware, and cuts cost a little.

[BitcoinPappi]

Very interesting post,got a lot of laughs . This will and I would guess already probably happening.  Not the Starbucks scenario but techie friends of auto mechanics , carpenters  and other fields will probably try to use the power available there.

As mentioned philipma1957(which seem to be scheming btw haha )  there are numerous possibilities if you think about it but is the risk worth the reward ? More than likely not besides its unethical, atleast give the victim a 10% of the profits, then it would be considered a "partnership"

[smracer]

The best thing to do is start a program that gives away free S3's to women in offices as "Foot warmers".   You go and install them personally and hook them up at the offices.  Women love space heaters for their feet.  Free BTC for you.