In what most likely were the dumbest crypto-related crimes one can commit. With regards to where it was done. I will take the high road and only assume it was a gigantic brain fart that led them down this patch. And I have accordingly with journalistic tradition dubbed it the Brain Fart Caper accordingly.
What has transpired
In the middle of September, they made some strange discoveries in the Supreme Administrative Court in Warsaw as they discovered several mining rigs hidden in at least two different places. Beneath a raised floor and inside a ventilation duct. The mining rigs were described as "high-powered cryptocurrency mining rigs" by the news outlet. And given their propensity to not really be up to date or know what they are talking about when it comes to cryptocurrencies, and even less so when it comes to mining. I will assume these mining rigs were ASIC or Application-Specific Integrated Circuit. And when it comes to ASIC mining, the absolutely safest bet is to bet on these being Bitcoin ASIC miners.
Why, were, but brain fart
Let us talk about the interesting part of this. The act of stealing power from someone or someplace is probably one or at most two days older than after the first power cables were put in. I mean they most likely needed to wait a day or so before putting their plan into action. Scams like these are nothing new either. As soon as one can get even a slight economic leg up at the expense of someone else people will do it. I remember back in the mid-90s when cell phones were fairly new. There was a company that had one of those expensive numbers that charged something like $0.5 a minute. But the kicker was you "earned" something like $0.1 or $0.05 per minute. The thing was labeled as a way for you to use up your prepaid cash, that came every month with your mobile plan. You paid a minimum every month to your phone provided, and part of that you could then use to pay for your calls. This meant that people could use this prepaid money and get some back.
Old-time cell phone?
The problem became crystal clear pretty fast as people used their companies' phones to call the number, put the charger in and just leave the phone there for the night and weekends. More or less all the time they were not needing it for actual work. So these types of scams are nothing new, and I am sure we will see variations of them in the future as well.
But bringing in and hiding equipment on site tells me that most likely these ASIC were old, way old. Talking a few generations old, so old no one would even consider buying them. Well unless they had "free" power that is. Now it does not matter how inefficient they are as you're not footing the bill.
Does this mean that they are very clever or really stupid? I guess it depends. They did put in their own Wi-Fi hotspots, no idea if it is to lessen a possible charge they could end up facing. Or if there was no easy access. The article mentions that the ASIC was able to consume several thousand worth of Zloty in power every month. And 1000 Zloty is about $250. A power-hungry new ASIC consumes around 3500W. And if we just use the normally applied $0.1 as the cost of power. We then see that roughly for every 1000 Zloty they can power a modern ASIC one month. But hoping that they at least used way older ASIC we can take that number to anywhere in between 1.5 and 2 I would say.
According to the news article, the power was worth "several thousand Zloty" each month. Probably 3-10 then. That would make it anywhere from 4-5 ASIC up to 20. And if you have been anywhere near one of those you will have picked up on two things. They are loud AF and produce a lot of heat. But to be fair that more or less goes for all mining equipment.
This leaves me pondering how stupid you have to be to hide it in a ventilation duct. Those things carry sound like crazy. I mean it can't be that hard to find a couple of ASIC sitting in the ventilation screaming at over 80db. And hiding it under a raised floor. I just keep thinking of The Tell-Tale Heart, the short story by Edgar Allan Poe. A killer is going insane after having hidden a body under the floorboard in the house. Ending with them believing they are hearing the thumping sound of the dead person's beating heart.
People put all sorts of crazy stuff under their floors, so why not an ASIC or 10?
And if you are planning to do something like this. Don't pick a courthouse. I mean sure it is nice of you to consider the long arm of the law. I mean that thing must have a wicked tennis elbow by now. So you putting your stuff in the same place that most likely finds you guilty of committing the crime. Sure that's considerate and all. But not very smart. Also putting it in an environment that you can't really fully control is not the smartest either. But on the plus side, I think the Brain fart Caper is a great name. I will leave you there with the ever whoshing sound of the ASIC fans at max speed.
If you have heard about any interesting or funny crypto-related crimes please share them with everyone in the comment section below.
If you would like to support me and the content I make, please consider following me, reading my other posts, or why not do both instead.
https://medium.com/@bo.daniel.jensen
See you on the interwebs!
Picture provided by: https://pixabay.com/
Yay! 🤗
Your content has been boosted with Ecency Points, by @daje10.
Use Ecency daily to boost your growth on platform!
Support Ecency
Vote for new Proposal
Delegate HP and earn more