thecoinrepublic.com
The Malaysian authorities have destroyed more than 1,000 cryptocurrency rigs. The operator had stolen energy worth RM8.4 million from a Sarawak company.
The authorities in Malaysia have performed a raid this year. They have destroyed 1,069 cryptocurrency rigs. To destroy these rigs, a steamroller has been used by the authorities. The action was taken in Sarawak, after the electric utility company from the Malaysian province filed a complaint regarding the stealing of electricity.
A complaint had been registered by the company about the mining operator in the state stealing electricity for the mining activities. The operator stole RM 8.4 million ($2million) used for company energy.
This is the part of the joint operation between law enforcement in the city of Miri and electric utility Sarawak energy.
Mining operation increasing extensively
As per the authorities, the mining operations of the company were spread across four locations. Six suspects have been arrested by the authorities in this connection. The arrested men were aged between 24 to 64.
Acknowledging the incident, the Chief of Police, from Sarawak informed that mining operations are becoming rampant in the city. Three houses have burnt down due to illegal electric connections.
A video has been posted on social media by the local ew outlet based in Sarawak. The authorities have performed six separate raids between February and April. Police destroyed around $1.26 million of mining equipment in totality.
Stealing of electricity
Malaysian officials believe that last year, $21.3 million were stolen in the country through illegal Bitcoin mining operations. Besides Malaysia, there are other countries who are also witnessing stealing of electricity worth millions.
Crypto mining is the way to make new bitcoin. This is an energy-intensive process. For mining, people perform to solve very complex math problems. These problems are solved using specialized computers. Once the problem is solved by them, new tokens get a birth and miners verify the new transactions. However, there is a great deal of time, electricity is used to run those machines. Hence, it jeopardizes local power grids.
The Security service of Ukraine busted a crypto mining operation earlier this month for stealing electricity from the country’s power grid. More than 5000 devices were removed from storage, including racks of PS4 Pro Stand. The Ukraine officials reported that $256,000 worth of energy has been stolen.
China has also taken a different approach. Instead of destroying it, the country has auctioned off the seized rigs.