on the crypto
Over the past three years, illegal power plants, tampered with energy meters and hidden cryptocurrency mines have favored "black" miners in stealing nearly $ 6,6 million (450 million Russian rubles) from local energy suppliers , as stated by the state company Rosseti.
The mining industries hidden on Russian territory
The company initially reported the figure in its official Telegram channel (in Russian) and subsequently confirmed the number to the media. Rosseti has researched those mining industries that have no contract with local energy producing companies, but still connect to electricity grids and use the electricity generated without paying for it.
Usually, this happens on the premises of an existing company where owners want to earn "extra revenue," they said. The places where some mining industries were declared included garages, rented offices, a house in the woods and a former farm, where ASICs were placed.
Abusive cables and control units along the Russian electricity grid
To steal electricity, the owners pulled an electrical cable to the nearest power line and built their own electrical transformer stations. In one of these cases, the owner hid the station literally underground, burying it in the ground in a public forest, according to Rosseti.
The miners involved would also tamper with the power meters to make it appear that they consumed less energy than that of a cryptocurrency mine - which, in the case of bitcoin mining for better quotation, it would be more than one kilowatt per hour for a single mining machine, multiplied by thousands of machines per company.
The blockchain to investigate energy consumption
Since 2017, Rossetti has found 35 cases of illegal energy consumption in 20 regions of Russia (Russia is made up of 85 regions of various sizes and population densities). Each of these cases has been reported to law enforcement agencies, said Rossetti.
“We analyze consumption patterns closely for anomalies, inspect power lines and measure station workload. Sometimes it is easy to notice a mining company with visual cues, such as when powerful air conditioning devices and fans are installed in a building, "said the company.
Over the past year, some crypto mining criminals have illegally mined cryptocurrencies using computers in a nuclear research institute and through the website of a local service provider.
Rosseti, in turn, explored the other side of technology, looking for ways to use the distributed ledger in order to collect data on energy consumption more effectively.
And how are you with the electricity bill? Seriously, the issue of electricity when it comes to cryptocurrency mining is becoming really critical. How did you get organized?
