Court orders Russian church to pay higher electricity bills for mining

According to CCN, Russia’s Irkutsk Arbitration Court recently ruled that a church must pay higher electricity bills because it was using encryption software to mine digital currencies.

Electricity supplier Irkutskenegro noticed a surge in the church’s electricity usage last year. Inspectors from the company even found mining equipment in a server room on the church’s second floor.

The church said the electricity was used for heating and producing religious materials, but the court noted that the relevant period was in the summer, so the "heating" explanation was not plausible.