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Sandwell Bitcoin mine found stealing electricity

bbc.co.uk

61–70 of 250 posts

Re: Sandwell Bitcoin mine found stealing electricity

#61

Based 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.

The heat thing is even more ridiculous, given that farmers have shifted to LED lighting for years now precisely to avoid heat emission that can be picked up by police copters...

The power still ends up as heat; LEDs just mean that less of it is wasted.

Re: Sandwell Bitcoin mine found stealing electricity

#62
post #42

Looking at the picture, they are using really old bitcoin ASIC miners from 2017. A profitability calculator I found says this Antminer S9 can get $948/year of income in exchange for $1,371 worth of electricity. That's a loss of $422/year. Obviously it's not profitable to use anymore, unless you are literally stealing electricity like these guys.

Profitability calculators typically rely on the current market rate of BTC. Even if they paid for electricity, they could make up for it by keeping their earnings in BTC/whatever. Whether that's a smart decision is another issue, but for some mining is like a startup in that you burn cash early in hopes of a big exit down the road. Edit: Several people have pointed out that you can just buy BTC or crypto directly. Be…

If you have to pay $50k in electricity to mine a $40k bitcoin, it would be better to just turn off the mine and buy the bitcoin directly.

Re: Sandwell Bitcoin mine found stealing electricity

#63
post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Man, I was hoping some graphics cards would be liquidated to cover the losses.

Can't graphics cards still be used profitably to mine other cryptocurrencies though? I don't follow this stuff too closely but my understanding is that graphics card prices are a good indicator here, and that GPU-powered mining is still acting to drive up prices.

GPU mining is currently concentrated on ETH, which is changing (EIP 1559) mid-July (and then later this year). The GPU market will change (and already is) dramatically after that. Many are still in denial, hoping there will be "another coin" to mine. Or, they're just spreading false hope to give them time to dump their hardware.

Re: Sandwell Bitcoin mine found stealing electricity

#64
post #26

Based 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.

> I'm not sure what more you'd reasonably expect to find.

Literally any sort of activity that uses electrical ovens. I can think of dozens of processes for the manufacture of plastic, ceramic and metal items where you're gonna want to bake stuff.

Edit: Apparently it wasn't obvious I was disagree about the assertion that "Based on heat and people coming and going" is normal justification for raiding a pot grow op and not this specific case where a warehouse that is supposedly disconnected is using tons of power.

Also, it seems like a whole lot of people here don't understand that it is very common for facilities to be occupied by a tenant that's not the owner and who doesn't have any signage out front. If you're going in with a preconceived notion that you're looking for a grow op it's really easy to misread things done out of economic convenience as though they were intentional obfuscation.

Re: Sandwell Bitcoin mine found stealing electricity

#65
post #21

I say: combine the two (cannabis farming and bitcoin mining)!

Unfortunately the laws of thermodynamics will get in the way. Cannabis farming uses electricity to build organic chemicals and outputs waste heat at 40°C; bitcoin mining uses electricity to solve equations and outputs waste heat at 40°C. There's not really any way to use the waste products of one as an input to the other.

Residential heating would work

Re: Sandwell Bitcoin mine found stealing electricity

#66
post #42

Looking at the picture, they are using really old bitcoin ASIC miners from 2017. A profitability calculator I found says this Antminer S9 can get $948/year of income in exchange for $1,371 worth of electricity. That's a loss of $422/year. Obviously it's not profitable to use anymore, unless you are literally stealing electricity like these guys.

Profitability calculators typically rely on the current market rate of BTC. Even if they paid for electricity, they could make up for it by keeping their earnings in BTC/whatever. Whether that's a smart decision is another issue, but for some mining is like a startup in that you burn cash early in hopes of a big exit down the road. Edit: Several people have pointed out that you can just buy BTC or crypto directly. Be…

If you’re spending $1500 to mine $1000 in BTC and are bullish about the future of BTC, why not just buy $1500 of BTC?

Re: Sandwell Bitcoin mine found stealing electricity

#67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Profitability calculators typically rely on the current market rate of BTC. Even if they paid for electricity, they could make up for it by keeping their earnings in BTC/whatever. Whether that's a smart decision is another issue, but for some mining is like a startup in that you burn cash early in hopes of a big exit down the road. Edit: Several people have pointed out that you can just buy BTC or crypto directly. Be…

If you have to pay $50k in electricity to mine a $40k bitcoin, it would be better to just turn off the mine and buy the bitcoin directly.

Not if you have all that money tied up in an old mining rig which has close to zero resale value.

Re: Sandwell Bitcoin mine found stealing electricity

#69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

...one has to wonder also why they needed to keep visiting the place once they set everything up.

yeah, and lots of people... i don't know

Showing off to everyone at the pub, obviously. That farm was apparently barely profitable even with free electricity heh

Re: Sandwell Bitcoin mine found stealing electricity

#70
post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Entirely normal evidence for raiding cannabis farms. I'm not sure what more you'd reasonably expect to find.

> I'm not sure what more you'd reasonably expect to find. Literally any sort of activity that uses electrical ovens. I can think of dozens of processes for the manufacture of plastic, ceramic and metal items where you're gonna want to bake stuff. Edit: Apparently it wasn't obvious I was disagree about the assertion that "Based on heat and people coming and going" is normal justification for raiding a pot grow op and…

Yep. My nan runs a secret bakery. Does she deserve the cops breathing down her neck?
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