The number of Bitcoin cases has increased by more than 11 times in 4 years. The cases are concentrated in real mining sites. "It's all caused by stealing electricity."

The Securities Daily reporter found from the Judgment Documents Network that the number of documents involving Bitcoin has soared from 12 in 2014 to 142 since 2018.

■Reporter Yan Jingying

Recently, the price of Bitcoin has experienced a "big crash", which has caused people to question the true value of digital currency. Against this background, negative news such as "mining machines are sold by kilogram" and "mining farms are closed for rectification" have come one after another, conveying a "cool" atmosphere.

After the price of Bitcoin dropped from $6,500 to $4,000, the profit of mining has shrunk significantly. After Bitcoin fell from the altar, I wonder how those Bitcoin traders who once took risks and turned to crime because of it feel.

According to the China Judgment Documents Network, the Securities Daily reporter found that the number of cases involving Bitcoin is increasing year by year: from 12 documents in 2014 to 142 since 2018. With one month left in 2018, this number is likely to increase.

They are really "mining" in the mine

In fact, as the most well-known type of virtual currency, Bitcoin has gradually penetrated into our daily lives. Because of this, disputes related to Bitcoin are endless.

According to a search on the China Judgments Online website, the number of crimes involving Bitcoin has soared from 12 documents in 2014 to 142 from 2018 to date.

In terms of the causes of the cases, among the 311 documents so far, criminal cases account for more than half, reaching 172, while civil cases and administrative cases account for 137 and 2 respectively. Specifically, theft and fraud are the main criminal causes of BTC in recent years, with as many as 80 and 30 documents respectively.

From the perspective of geographical distribution, the Securities Daily reporter noticed that Anhui, Heilongjiang, Henan, Guangdong, Hunan, Hebei and other places had a large number of criminal case documents involving BTC, all of which were more than 10. The reporter read the 80 documents of the above-mentioned theft cases one by one and found that less than 30% of the cases involved the actual theft of Bitcoin or mining machines. Most of the defendants stole the state power for private mining and were brought to justice.

As we all know, Bitcoin mining requires a huge amount of electricity, especially after the difficulty of mining gradually increases, the cost of obtaining coins has increased again and again. On October 30 this year, data from the National Energy Administration showed that my country's electricity consumption has grown rapidly this year, with the total electricity consumption in the first three quarters increasing by 8.9% year-on-year. Among them, the annual electricity consumption of data centers and Bitcoin mining in the service industry has doubled.

Why are there so many crimes in Anhui, Heilongjiang, Henan and other provinces? The Securities Daily reporter found that this is closely related to the conditions required for mining. In the above three provinces, the locations involved are relatively concentrated: Ma'anshan City, Anhui Province, Daqing City, Heilongjiang Province, and Pingdingshan City, Henan Province. Most criminals use the convenient conditions of oil fields, minerals and other places to steal national electricity in order to achieve low-cost mining.

More than 2,800 mining machines were found in Tangshan

According to local media reports, according to incomplete statistics, nearly one-fifth of the world's bitcoin mining machines are sold in Daqing. Since bitcoin mining machines consume huge amounts of electricity, the "miners" rely on electricity from remote oil wells, which has brought immeasurable economic losses to oil field companies and many unstable factors such as production safety.

From January 15 to April 25 this year, in just over three months, the Daqing Oilfield Branch alone uncovered 37 illegal dens that stole bitcoins produced by oilfield electricity, solved 23 cases, arrested 36 suspects, and confiscated 3,768 mining machines of various types.

In addition, Tangshan Kaiping Public Security Bureau also recently announced its "results" in combating electricity theft. Tangshan Kaiping Public Security Bureau said that as of October 21, the Kaiping Branch had investigated and dealt with 735 illegal acts of electricity theft; filed 9 criminal cases, detained 15 people, arrested 6 fugitives, and pursued 10 people online; filed 47 administrative cases, detained 38 people; and seized 2,817 Bitcoin mining machines. The special campaign to combat illegal crimes of electricity theft in key areas is advancing in depth.

In addition to being sent to jail, the "miners" who stole electricity also suffered a lot of economic losses. In addition to sentencing the defendants to fixed-term imprisonment and fines, courts in many places have confiscated Bitcoin mining machines, fans, and exhaust fans as criminal tools. Compared with the tens of thousands of yuan of electricity they stole, it can be said that they "lost both the wife and the army."