A Taiwanese bitcoin miner has been arrested and charged with digging 100 million yuan (about $ 14.5 million) into the crypt using NT $ 100 million (or $ 3.2 million) of stolen electricity.
The man, whose surname is Yang, is accused of operating with 17 illegal crypto-mining centers that use fake shop windows throughout Taiwan.
The smuggled mines were located in the municipalities of Xinbei, Taoyuan and Hsinchu, as reported by EBC News.
Alleged Thief Set Up 17 Bogus Stores
Here's how the scam worked: Yang rented a shop in a building and set up a fake shop to imitate an Internet café or a doll shop.
He therefore allegedly hired electricians to rewire power into buildings to divert electricity to fuel its illicit mining operations. The electricity meters were handled in such a way that the use of energy would not be charged to Yang's false stores.
Criminal activity was discovered after Taiwan Power, Taiwan's state power company, investigated a faulty power supply in one of Yang's dummy doll shops.
"The group recruited electricians who managed to penetrate into sealed meters to add private lines to use electricity for free before they reach the meters," said Wang Zhicheng, deputy chief of the Office. of criminal investigation in Taiwan.
Electricity theft for cryptocurrency extraction is a recurring problem in China, where mining is widespread despite the repeated repressions of the government on the virtual currency industry.
China points to the cryptic miners who steal power
As reported by CCN in April 2018, Chinese police in the port city of Tianjin confiscated 600 bitcoin mining computers in the largest case of energy theft in recent years.
The alleged theft was discovered after the local grid operator observed an abnormal increase in electricity consumption. An investigation later revealed that the bitcoin miners had tampered with a junction box to short-circuit the meters to avoid being charged for their energy consumption.
Meanwhile, Chinese mining giant Bitcoin Bitmain is firing at least 50% of its workforce amid the prolonged bear market. Sources say that Bitmain could also sell its huge inventories of Litecoin token and Bitcoin Cash to finance its agitation operations.
The news has sent to shake up the industry of crypto-currency in distress, which has been agitated by layoffs and huge price slumps.
Bitcoin Dead (Again)?
So this recent burst of bad news marks the end of bitcoin? Maybe yes maybe no.
Bitcoin is "dead" 90 times in 2018. This is slightly less than the 125 times it died in 2017 – when the price of bitcoin was approaching a record level of almost $ 20,000.
Bitcoin & # 39; dead & # 39; 90 times in 2018 https://t.co/TdEMAI3TPV #bitcoin #rekt
– CCN (@CryptoCoinsNews) December 25, 2018
The crypt evangelizers like the Winklevoss twins are following the course, saying that the price of bitcoin, like life, is cyclical. Go up, then down, then up again. Only the noobs think that the price chart of an activity has a linear trajectory, they say.
When asked about the Crypto Winter, Tyler Winklevoss joked: "We are totally at home in the winter".
Likewise, Jeff Sprecher – president of the New York Stock Exchange – said he did not doubt that bitcoins and cryptocurrencies are here to stay despite the current bear market.
"The unequivocal answer is yes [crypto will survive]", Said Sprecher.
"Yes unequivocal": the president of the NYSE states that Bitcoin and Crypto are here to stay https://t.co/hOqmy78Mwc
– CCN (@CryptoCoinsNews) November 29, 2018
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