Man rents house to keep 22 Bitcoin mining machines, steals 130,000 kWh of electricity in a year

Running a Bitcoin "mining" unit consumes a huge amount of electricity. If the cost of paying electricity is deducted, the value of the mined Bitcoin is small, and there is no profit... In Panzhihua, Sichuan Province, a man named Guo wanted to steal electricity to mine Bitcoin. He stole 130,000 kWh of electricity in a year for "mining" and was eventually detained by the police.

▲The suspect identified the scene

According to the police from the East District Branch of the Panzhihua Public Security Bureau, in November this year, the person in charge of the electrical inspection of the Panzhihua Iron Mine in the East District of Panzhihua City found that the electricity consumption had soared in recent months. Based on years of work experience, the person in charge felt that something was wrong and conducted inspections on all the houses that used electricity. On November 6, he found that a house in Group 3 of Shuanglongtan Village, Yinjiang Town, Panzhihua City was stealing electricity, so he immediately reported it to the Yinjiang Police Station of the East District Branch of the Panzhihua Public Security Bureau.

After investigation, the police learned that the house was rented by Guo from a local villager named Li. It turned out that Guo consumed a lot of electricity when running the Bitcoin "mining" unit. If the electricity bill was deducted, the value of the Bitcoin mined would be small, so he could not make a profit. Around November 2018, Guo heard that the electricity for the villagers in Shuanglongtan Village, Yinjiang Town, East District, Panzhihua City was provided free of charge by Panzhihua Iron Mine Company, so he decided to steal electricity from Shuanglongtan Village to mine Bitcoin for profit.

Afterwards, Guo met Li, a villager of Shuanglongtan Village, through a friend. He rented an empty room next to Li's mango field in Group 3 of Shuanglongtan Village, placed 22 Bitcoin "mining" units in the empty room, and privately installed wires to steal electricity from the Panzhihua Iron Mine to operate the units to mine Bitcoin for profit.

Over the past year, the landlord Li, knowing full well that Guo was stealing electricity, not only concealed the fact, but also used it as an excuse to raise Guo's rent several times, condoning Guo's continued theft of electricity.

Guo has stolen a total of 130,000 kWh of electricity, causing economic losses of more than 140,000 yuan to the Panzhihua Iron Mine. Currently, Guo and Li have been detained for theft, and the case is still under further investigation.

▲The suspect identified the scene

Bitcoin mining machines are computers used to earn Bitcoins. They usually work by listing a large number of graphics cards and consume a lot of electricity. A machine consumes more than 20 degrees of electricity 24 hours a day, and the electricity cost is high.

It is understood that since the second half of 2018, as the price of Bitcoin has declined and the difficulty of "mining" has increased with the decrease in the number of Bitcoins, the profit of "mining" has become increasingly slim. Many "miners" have taken risks and stolen electricity for "mining". There have been many cases of electricity theft due to Bitcoin "mining" in China.

Tang Jingjing Red Star News reporter Jiang Long photographed the report