I say: combine the two (cannabis farming and bitcoin mining)!
Sandwell Bitcoin mine found stealing electricity
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Re: Sandwell Bitcoin mine found stealing electricity
#22Re: Sandwell Bitcoin mine found stealing electricity
#23Based on heat and people coming and going, police assumed it was a cannabis farm . Based on that incorrect conclusion, they raided the place. Flimsy evidence.
Didn't they raid the place because they knew that they were stealing electricity?
Good point it sounds like the had a tip about that and some follow up with Western Power Distribution.
Re: Sandwell Bitcoin mine found stealing electricity
#24"The computer equipment has been seized but no arrests have been made, the force said." Whoever does get arrested for this, they won't be facing the same charges for intent to supply drugs. I'm not sure on the penalty of stealing electricity, but it's probably a lot less severe.
I don't get your reply? Obviously they're not facing charges for intent to supply drugs because that's not what they did?
Normally when the police find a large amount of electricity theft it's for drugs, and the "news" in this is that it's for some other purpose.
Re: Sandwell Bitcoin mine found stealing electricity
#25Based on heat and people coming and going, police assumed it was a cannabis farm . Based on that incorrect conclusion, they raided the place. Flimsy evidence.
A report from the public, unusual activity for the location, lots of heat that can't be explained by official electrical usage and, probably, not explained by the registered or zoned usage (probably light industrial).
Sounds like more than enough to get a warrant.
Re: Sandwell Bitcoin mine found stealing electricity
#26Based on heat and people coming and going, police assumed it was a cannabis farm . Based on that incorrect conclusion, they raided the place. Flimsy evidence.
Entirely normal evidence for raiding cannabis farms. I'm not sure what more you'd reasonably expect to find.
Re: Sandwell Bitcoin mine found stealing electricity
#27Earlier quoted context omitted.
Those are ASICs. Mining Bitcoin on an RTX is untenable.
other crapcoins are possible w/ GPUs https://whattomine.com/
Even with the new GPU mining protections that nvidia baked in?
edit: i mean it's probably a moot point, mining at 10% efficiency is still worth money if you're tapping electricity from somewhere.
Re: Sandwell Bitcoin mine found stealing electricity
#28"The computer equipment has been seized but no arrests have been made, the force said." Whoever does get arrested for this, they won't be facing the same charges for intent to supply drugs. I'm not sure on the penalty of stealing electricity, but it's probably a lot less severe.
The crime is specifically “abstracting electricity”, which is dealt with in the Theft Art 1968. Highest sentence seems to be 5 years imprisonment, but 1 year the normal upper limit: https://www.sentencingcouncil.org.uk/offences/magistrates-co...
Re: Sandwell Bitcoin mine found stealing electricity
#29Re: Sandwell Bitcoin mine found stealing electricity
#30A little off topic but I always found it interesting that the "theft" of electricity is actually called Abstracting in UK law, since you can't really steal the electricity itself.
> ...it was held that electricity could not be stolen as it is not property within the meaning of section 4 of the Theft Act 1968... Before the Computer Misuse Act 1990 those who misused computers ("hackers") were charged with abstracting electricity, as no other law applied