British media: Bitcoin mining reveals first death

Original title: British media: Bitcoin mining reveals first death

Reference News reported on July 24 that according to the British Daily Telegraph website on July 22, Bitcoin mining has been called the gold rush of the digital world, the Klondike of the virtual world (a place located in northwestern Canada, famous for the gold rush in the late 19th century - this website note), which can make participants rich overnight.

The report said that although Bitcoin miners sit in front of computer terminals instead of digging in the snow and ice of Alaska, gold diggers who are crazy about Bitcoin mining are beginning to realize that this activity can be equally dangerous.

A bitcoin miner reportedly died when his computer exploded as he tried to increase its computing power to earn more bitcoins, in what could be the first fatality from the cryptocurrency.

The report noted that the death of 26-year-old Thai Danai Mame was the latest in a series of industrial accidents caused by unregulated Bitcoin mining activities.

Bitcoin mining is a "crowdsourcing" process in which hundreds of thousands of participants around the world verify Bitcoin transactions and ensure they are legitimate. These so-called miners can receive Bitcoin rewards after completing a certain number of transaction verifications.

The report pointed out that the industry has attracted a large number of newcomers, some of whom claim to earn hundreds of dollars a day. However, since verifying transactions requires high computer computing power, many miners will connect multiple computers together to obtain more profits. This means that if these activities are not regulated, they will be potentially dangerous and harmful to the environment.

Mame was reportedly so distraught over the failure of several of his computer hard drives that he could not wait for maintenance personnel to come and fix the devices the next day and attempted to repair them himself, causing an explosion that electrocuted him to death.

His brother, Apiwa, said he found Mame dead when he and maintenance workers entered his room Wednesday morning, slumped over a computer wearing only a pair of shorts.

"He had modified the computer to increase its computing power," Abhiwa said. "I don't think it's safe, but my brother modified the computer himself to mine bitcoin, which he is very keen on."

"We believe he was trying to fix the faulty machine himself but got electrocuted," said local police officer Santi Shushewu.

The accident will heighten concerns about the lack of regulation in bitcoin mining, most of which is currently done in Asia because of its abundance of cheap skilled workers.

According to a study by the University of Cambridge in the UK, global Bitcoin mining activities consume more electricity each year than the entire country of Argentina's annual electricity consumption.

Bitcoin mining accidents have occurred from time to time, such as one near the city of Vladivostok in eastern Russia, where a resident illegally connected his computer to an apartment building's power supply, causing a fire.