UK police had to execute a raid in an industrial unit in the West Midlands. The reason being of expecting to find a cannabis farm, but in its place found a big bitcoin mining facility. It was accidentally bypassing the controls from the local power service company to siphon energy from the main grid. It reported stealing thousands of pounds in the practice.

The police department was surprised last week (23-May-21 to 30-May-21) when they penetrated an alleged cannabis farm on an industrial premise. The reports from intelligence say that all of the signs recommended the site was used as a cannabis-growing farm.

The West Midlands police have specified in their report after doing the analysis:

“We heard how various people were visiting the unit at different times of day, lots of wiring and ventilation ducts were visible and a police buzz picked up a considerable heat source from above. They are all standard cannabis factory signs.”

Bitcoin associated Power Theft is Now Common

As it is identified that bitcoin mining is a very energy-intensive job, and machines used for this reason spend big amounts of energy to protect the network. This point has made cryptocurrency mining-related power theft a common existence. There have been a number of electricity theft cases in China and Malaysia. Here miners have stolen millions of dollars while functionalizing their mining facilities.

If miners avoid their local controls and join their machines directly to the grids, the energy consumption might be more. It will be too much for the power system to handle. Iran is now facing electricity issues, with its government banning Bitcoin mining due to the blackouts its system is facing with the high demand for power for these purposes.

Vandana Mrigwani

CBW - External Analyst

INDIA